rip is a rust-based rm with a focus on safety, ergonomics, and performance. It favors a simple interface, and does not implement the xdg-trash spec or attempt to achieve the same goals.
Deleted files get sent to the graveyard 🪦 (typically /tmp/graveyard-$USER, see notes on changing this) under their absolute path, giving you a chance to recover them 🧟. No data is overwritten. If files that share the same path are deleted, they will be renamed as numbered backups.
rip2 is a maintained fork of nivekuil/rip with several improvements:
- Cross-platform support (Linux, macOS, Windows)
- Modernised codebase (refactored in modern Rust, merged upstream PRs)
- Improved safety (file locking to prevent races, stricter permission handling, bug fixes)
- Better tooling (shell completions via clap, full test suite with coverage, clearer timestamped output)
Install:
brew install rip2Delete files and directories (no -rf needed):
rip file.txt dir1 dir2Undo the last deletion:
rip -uMore details below.
This package is supported on Linux, macOS, and Windows.
On macOS or Linux with Homebrew installed:
brew install rip2- First install Rust.
- Then, install this package with cargo:
cargo install --locked rip2Binary releases for different architectures and operating systems are made available on the GitHub releases page: https://github.com/MilesCranmer/rip2/releases/
To install, simply open the archive and move the binary somewhere you can run it.
This repository is also flake-compatible, and backwards-compatible with non-flake systems. Just run the following to test it out:
nix develop "github:MilesCranmer/rip2"A few other package repositories have contributed support:
The repo uses flake-compat for compatibility, and naersk to build the Rust package from source.
Details:
Add To Path Temporarily (With Flakes):
nix shell "github:MilesCranmer/rip2"Flake minimal setup:
# flake.nix
{
inputs = {
nixpkgs.url = "github:NixOS/nixpkgs/nixos-unstable";
rip2 = {
url = "github:MilesCranmer/rip2";
inputs.nixpkgs.follows = "nixpkgs";
};
};
outputs = inputs@{ self, nixpkgs, rip2, ... }:
{
nixosConfigurations.your-host = let
system = "x86_64-linux"; # or your system
lib = nixpkgs.lib;
in lib.nixosSystem {
inherit system;
modules = [
./configuration.nix # or other configuration options
# ...
{
environment.systemPackages = [
rip2.packages.${system}.default
];
}
];
};
};
}zypper ar -f obs://utilities
zypper in rip2
Usage: rip [OPTIONS] [FILES]...
rip [SUBCOMMAND]
Arguments:
[FILES]... Files and directories to remove
Options:
--graveyard <GRAVEYARD> Directory where deleted files rest
-d, --decompose Permanently deletes the graveyard
-s, --seance Prints files that were deleted in the current directory
-u, --unbury Restore the specified files or the last file if none are specified
-i, --inspect Print some info about FILES before burying
-f, --force Non-interactive mode
-h, --help Print help
-V, --version Print version
Sub-commands:
completions Generate shell completions file
graveyard Print the graveyard path
help Print this message or the help of the given subcommand(s)
Basic usage -- easier than rm
rip dir1/ file1Undo the last deletion
rip -u
# Returned /tmp/graveyard-jack/home/jack/file1 to /home/jack/file1Print some info (size and first few lines in a file, total size and first few files in a directory) about the target and then prompt for deletion
rip -i file1
# dir1: file, 1337 bytes including:
# > Position: Shooting Guard and Small Forward ▪ Shoots: Right
# > 6-6, 185lb (198cm, 83kg)
# Send file1 to the graveyard? (y/n) yPrint files that were deleted from under the current directory
rip -s
# /tmp/graveyard-jack/home/jack/file1
# /tmp/graveyard-jack/home/jack/dir1Name conflicts are resolved
touch file1
rip file1
rip -s
# /tmp/graveyard-jack/home/jack/dir1
# /tmp/graveyard-jack/home/jack/file1
# /tmp/graveyard-jack/home/jack/file1~1-u also takes the path of a file in the graveyard
rip -u /tmp/graveyard-jack/home/jack/file1
# Returned /tmp/graveyard-jack/home/jack/file1 to /home/jack/file1Combine -u and -s to restore everything printed by -s
rip -su
# Returned /tmp/graveyard-jack/home/jack/dir1 to /home/jack/dir1
# Returned /tmp/graveyard-jack/home/jack/file1~1 to /home/jack/file1~1Aliases.
You probably shouldn't alias rm to rip. Unlearning muscle memory is hard, but it's harder to ensure that every rm you make (as different users, from different machines and application environments) is the aliased one.
What I instead recommend is aliasing rm to an echo statement that simply reminds you to use rip:
alias rm="echo Use 'rip' instead of rm."Graveyard location.
You can see the current graveyard location by running rip graveyard.
If you have $XDG_DATA_HOME environment variable set, rip will use $XDG_DATA_HOME/graveyard instead of the $TMPDIR/graveyard-$USER.
If you want to put the graveyard somewhere else (like ~/.local/share/Trash), you have two options, in order of precedence:
- Alias
riptorip --graveyard ~/.local/share/Trash - Set the environment variable
$RIP_GRAVEYARDto~/.local/share/Trash.
This can be a good idea because if the graveyard is mounted on an in-memory file system (as /tmp is in Arch Linux), deleting large files can quickly fill up your RAM. It's also much slower to move files across file systems, although the delay should be minimal with an SSD.
Force mode.
The -f --force flag enables non-interactive mode, which skips most prompts and automatically uses safe and reasonable behavior:
- Big files are copied to the graveyard without prompting
- Files already in the graveyard are permanently deleted without prompting
- Special, non-movable files will error
Miscellaneous.
In general, a deletion followed by a --unbury should be idempotent.
The deletion log is kept in .record, found in the top level of the graveyard.