The Wayback Machine - https://web.archive.org/web/20260224215242/https://ss64.com/mac/trash.html

trash

Move files and directories to the user trash folder.

Syntax
      trash [-h] [--help] [-s] [-stopOnError] [-v] [--verbose] FILE [FILE...]

Key
   -s
   --stopOnError
       Exit with an error if any move to a trash folder fails

   -h
   --help
       Display usage information for the tool and exit

   -v
   --verbose
       Display more verbose status

Bugs: While the correct files do get deleted, changes made with this trash utility may not be correctly reflected by MacOS finder [source].

First appeared in macOS 14.0

Examples

Moves a file and directory into the user's trash folder, if the trash folder exists and permissions allow the items to be moved into the trash:

trash demo.txt folder1

“I don't understand why when we destroy something created by man we call it vandalism, but when we created by nature we call it progress” ~ Ed Begley Jr

Related macOS commands

Local man page: trash - Command line help page on your local machine.
brew install trash - An alternative command-line trash utility by Ali Rantakari.
rm - Remove files.
rmdir - Remove empty folder.
srm - Securely remove files or directories.

Jan	FEB	Mar
	24
2025	2026	2027