Sunday, 23 December 2007

Wipe files/folders using Nautilus-actions

Here's how you can add the wipe command to your right-click menu using Nautilus-actions. This will enable you to securely delete one or more files/folders without having to use the command line. To install Nautilus-actions, enter the following in your terminal.

$ sudo apt-get install nautilus-actions

If you don't have the wipe command installed already, you can get it using the following command.

$ sudo apt-get install wipe

Nautilus-actions is located under System>Preferences menu. You'll get the following window when you run it. To add a new action simply click on the 'Add' button.



Next, copy everything you see in the following two windows.


When your done click the OK button and close Nautilus-actions. Now you should see 'Wipe selected' command appear when you right-click on a file or folder. You will not be asked for confirmation when your wiping a file/folder so use with care.


3 comments:

  1. although this is useful, it may also be dangerous (say you meant to click another option in the context menu, for instance).

    a different option can be found at:
    http://rob.pectol.com/myscripts/secu...-delete.sh.txt

    (source: http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=3353826&postcount=4)

    ReplyDelete
  2. You forgot to add this command. otherwise it will not work

    in the terminal type
    nautilus -q
    nautilus
    press enter twice

    Wipe will work on ext 3 file systems in the newer version of ubuntu!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi there,

    a secure solution is very easy. I tested this with Ubuntu 12.04 LTS:

    1. Install zenity

    sudo apt-get install zenity

    2. Write a little wrapper script

    #!/bin/bash
    zenity --question \
    --title "Wipe selected ..." \
    --text "Do you really like to wipe all selected files and folders?" && \
    wipe -rfs "${1}"

    Put the script into your path (/usr/bin or /usr/local/bin) and make the script executable (chmod +x scriptname).

    3. Nautilus actions interface changed a bit:

    - use the "scriptname" as your path
    - use parameter in nautilus actions "%F" (it will be used within the script then given by $1 via bash).
    - use * for basename, MIME and folder

    That's it.

    Greets and thanks for the advice
    Axel

    ReplyDelete