How many times do you empty your trash?
If you are like me, sometimes a lot, sometimes never.
It really depends on how long you tend to keep certain files in your system.
I wanted to automate the emptying of the trash.
I don't want to use the mouse each time because keyboard shortcuts tend to be quicker.
So ultimately, I want to be able to use the keyboard and "map" to a command that does this.
Sounds simple right?
First step was to work out in terminal how to do this.
Found out you'd type a command like this to get it done:
rm -rf ~/.Trash/*
I definitely don't want to type this every time in terminal.
Thats multiple keystrokes - the antithesis of what I want to achieve, so I created an alias.
In ~/.bash_profile this line exists:
alias trash="rm -rf ~/.Trash/*
This is closer, it maps the word trash to the command for emptying the trash.
While aliases are cool, this still requires me to be in the terminal.
& I'm not always in the terminal.
Enter Hammerspoon. Feel free to check that out.
In my Hammerspoon config, lives a little bit of Lua which kinda looks like JS code that looks like this:
hs.hotkey.bind(hyper, 'E', function()
hs.execute('trash', true)
end)
hyper is a variable I set higher in the config that simulates pressing the keys CMD + SHIFT + ALT + SHIFT together.
Do enough research on Hammerspoon, and you'd end up understanding why this type of thing is helpful.
Hint, it has something to do with keyboard automation.
I use the Caps Lock key to simulate pressing all those buttons.
After reloading the config, I can now press CAPS LOCK + E to execute the terminal command trash but without being in the terminal & this will empty my trash.
Mission achieved.