Hi Eric, Travis, and Others, How about the following way of checking whether Eric's problem file is still in the .Trashes folder on his Time Machine volume? Terminal's command line interface lets you do a lot more work with your system with precision, but many people aren't comfortable with it, and haven't read through guides like "Take Control of the Mac Command Line with Terminal". However, there are a number of utility programs that feature GUI implementations of the more useful settings that Terminal can give you access to. I'm thinking of good freeware programs like TinkerTool or OnyX, that have menu options where you can turn on and off the display of hidden files like ".Trashes" in the Finder GUI. In these cases it's all or nothing, but Eric only wants to solve his problem and get on with things.
Normally, I'd try downloading the application programs in question so that I can give direct instructions, but my disk is absolutely full with a project that I need to complete under deadline for work, and I can't afford to clear off the space, install the program, and check this now. I'm sure that both TinkerTool and OnyX have settings that allow you to show or hide your hidden files in their menus, but I'm not running current versions on this computer. Here's a recent reviewer's description of TinkerTool just pre-Lion (but the latest version supports Lion): <begin quote> TinkerTool's preferences are organized under 10 main headings: Finder (for options like showing hidden files or restricting the Finder), Dock, General (a lot of useful options, including control over scroll arrows and screenshot file formats), Applications, Snow Leopard (with options for Spotlight, Mail, and Spaces), Fonts, Font Smoothing, Login Items, Safari, and QuickTime X. Compared with some other "tinkering" apps, TinkerTool is a bit more limited in its options--but that limitation can also be reassuring, since TinkerTool doesn't add files, run background processes, or require any special permissions. If you get tired of TinkerTool, you can choose to reset your computer to its "pre-TinkerTool state" (or not) and simply trash the app. Recent builds have kept TinkerTool up to date with the most recent changes in the Mac OS and related apps, including the capability to disable the Ping and iTunes Store pull-down menus in iTunes 10, and disable all RSS features in Safari. You can find similar apps with more potent features, but TinkerTool is a solid (and free) option that's worthwhile for anyone with limited preference-tweaking needs. <end quote> Eric could grab TinkerTool from the MacUpdate site at: http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/5721/tinkertool (MacUpdate uses standard format layout for download link, short description, list of what's new, and links to the developer's site, as well as giving user comments, so I generally Google a program's name along with "MacUpdate" to find the URL, and download from there.) Then he could use the application to turn on the ability to show hidden files in Finder from Tinker Tool's preference pane (brought up with Command+Comma) or program tabs. If he uses Command-Shift-G from Finder and types in: /Volumes/My Time Machine/ followed by a Return, he should be able to view the .Trashes folder. Or he could directly type in: /Volumes/My Time Machine/.Trashes and press Return to go to directly to the .Trashes directory of his Time Machine volume (assuming it is mounted), and check whether the problem file named "2011-09-19-163521.inProgress" is still there, and try to delete it. If he can't remove it or force delete the Trash on this Time Machine volume through the GUI, he'll still be able to highlight the problem file in Finder, then use Command-C to copy the path to it, and open a Terminal window, type "rm -f" (without the quotation marks) followed by a space, and then use Command-V to paste in the exact path to the specific file in question. The only thing about the Command-V trick is that the full path expansion is only performed when you paste into the Terminal window. If you paste into a plain text TextEdit window, you only get the file name, and not the path. But this does let you be very specific about exactly which file you want to remove, and there's even a way around using the pasted file name in TextEdit if you use I also found a useful free app in the Mac App Store named "Go2Shell" that Travis and others may like. Here's the recent TUAW description: <begin quote> Go2Shell is a tiny little 0.3MB app available for free from the Mac App Store that has the potential to speed up your work-flow if it involves Terminal. Go2Shell simply launches a Terminal session with the current folder you're navigating in Finder, or the folder that Go2Shell is located in, open for work. It even supports iTerm, iTerm 2 and xterm if you're not a fan of Apple's own-brand Terminal. It's so simple, it's almost beautiful and if you happen to have to modify files in Terminal, or any other similar task, Go2Shell could be just ticket to save you time. <snip> Go2Shell is a great free download from the Mac App Store that does one thing and one thing well. So if you're a Terminal guru (even the app's preferences are accessed through the command line) then give Go2Shell a whirl. You might like it. <end quote> Here's the link to the Go2Shell program at the Mac App Store: http://itunes.apple.com/app/go2shell/id445770608?mt=12 This takes the uncertainty out of not being in the correct folder in Terminal that Travis alluded to, since if you highlight a file in (the foremost) Finder Window, then navigate to "Go2Shell" in your dock and press space or VO-Space to launch it, you'll open a Terminal window in exactly the directory of the folder containing that file. Or, in the case where you highlighted a folder, your Terminal window will open with you placed in the directory of that folder. You can interact with the Terminal window and navigate back (VO-Left arrow) to hear the path, or you can type the "pwd" command followed by pressing "return" to print the current working directory and listen to VoiceOver to check the location. If you do need to type either the "rm" or the "sudo rm" command in Terminal to remove files, you can now add the exact filename at the end. If a file of that specific name is not found in the current location, then nothing is deleted. And if you do the Command-C copy of the file you highlighted in Finder, and then paste with Command-V into a plain text TextEdit window, you'll get the exact name of the file (without the path, which you no longer need if you use the free Go2Shell application). As long as that filename doesn't have spaces in the middle of its name, you can edit in the TextEdit window to add the preceding "rm -f" as in: rm -f 2011-09-19-163521.inProgress Then you can copy this line from the TextEdit window with Command-C, (For a file with spaces in the middle of the name, enclose the entire filename in quotation marks.) Use Go2Shell to open a Terminal window in the correct directory location, or Command-Tab to switch the Terminal window if you previously opened one with Go2Shell, then paste in your copied command with Command-V and press Return to execute it. If the file isn't deleted, then you will have to use the "sudo rm -f" command in Terminal, such as: sudo rm -f 2011-09-19-163521.inProgress Type or paste this command into your Terminal window and press return. Then you should be prompted for your Admin password, which you will have to type in (without hearing it echoed by VoiceOver) and follow it with a press of the Return key. Travis is correct that you should be careful about the use of the "sudo" command in connection with deleting files. The instructions I gave in the earlier posts should be fairly safe, in that they only allow you to delete files in folders named ".Trashes", which are files that you moved to local Trash folders. In the present post, I am assuming that you use a free utility program like TinkerTool or OnyX -- or this is also a feature of paid maintenance programs like Cocktail -- to show you "hidden" files in the Finder, and that you can therefore view the exact names of the files in question, and copy and paste them. This means that you can easily put the specific file names into the command line arguments because you can use the copy command to accurately get long file names that are normally hidden. The commands listed in earlier posts will also work here, but I was assuming that you could not view the "hidden" files in the .Trashes folders, or copy and paste their names, so I gave you a command format that could be executed and typed relatively safely without knowing the exact filenames and paths, or even whether the applicable .Trashes folder is in a specific subfolder of your current directory. Normally, I would tell a user to type "ls" (without quotation marks) and press Return in the Terminal window to get a listing of files in the current directory (which should be ".Trashes") and check that the files in question were removed, but this relies on your setup being correct so you are able to read the results in the Terminal window, and checking that there are no files left here if you only get back the default prompt, with no files listed. When you are done, you can set your hidden files not to be shown again in Finder with TinkerTool, OnyX, or Cocktail. HTH. This seems a lot of work for two Terminal commands, though. There's probably an easier (safe) solution that someone can suggest, that involves less explanation, although I can't think of one at the present. Maybe just "don't interrupt Time Machine Backups in the middle by putting their files in the Trash". There are safe "sudo" commands you can practice with in Terminal, such as commanding the running of default maintenance tasks like "sudo periodic daily". All these will prompt you for your Admin password, however. Cheers, Esther <--- Mac Access At Mac Access Dot Net ---> To reply to this post, please address your message to [email protected] You can find an archive of all messages posted to the Mac-Access forum at either the list's own dedicated web archive: <http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/pipermail/mac-access/index.html> or at the public Mail Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/>. Subscribe to the list's RSS feed from: <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.xml> The Mac-Access mailing list is guaranteed malware, spyware, Trojan, virus and worm-free! Please remember to update your membership options periodically by visiting the list website at: <http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/mailman/listinfo/mac-access/options/>
