Filed under: How-tos, Found Footage
Found Footage: Trash Talk
I found this OS X trash primer over at YouTube in the new video listings. For many of you readers this is going to be old news--how to throw away locked or busy files--but for those of you who are new to OS X and the Macintosh, you may appreciate the basic how-to steps that the video offers. You don't actually need a third-party product to dispose of an application, but many OS X users like to keep their systems clean and tight.

![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)


Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Larry said 10:24AM on 2-08-2007
"clean and tight."
I love clean and tight..
Reply
Ross said 10:26AM on 2-08-2007
When you say that you can delete apps with a 3rd party tool what do you mean? The times I've tried to remove an app files from the app are left lying about. Is there away of deleting it without leaving files lying about?
Reply
Lunchbox said 10:27AM on 2-08-2007
When you say that you can delete apps with a 3rd party tool what do you mean? The times I've tried to remove an app files from the app are left lying about. Is there away of deleting it without leaving files lying about?
Reply
Lunchbox said 10:27AM on 2-08-2007
When you say that you can delete apps with a 3rd party tool what do you mean? The times I've tried to remove an app files from the app are left lying about. Is there away of deleting it without leaving files lying about?
Reply
Michael Barnwell said 10:28AM on 2-08-2007
Man, I sure do wish I knew of AppDelete before I sprung for AppZapper...oh well, good video for future generations of new Mac users.
-Michael
Reply
Gedeon said 10:30AM on 2-08-2007
Restart computer ? Booh !
Open Terminal -> (sudo) rm -rf ~/.Trash/*
And the job is done.
Reply
Will said 2:41PM on 2-08-2007
Additionally, you don't have to manually unlock every single locked file you're trying to throw away - just hold down option when you hit 'empty trash'. That one's been around since long before OS X - I'm surprised it wasn't mentioned.
Reply
Liam Dunaway said 5:22PM on 2-08-2007
seriously, just sudo rm that stuff!
Reply
M-A. said 6:15PM on 2-08-2007
Does anyone know a great website to learn all those terminal commands ?
Are they the same as in Linux ?
Thanks
Reply
Manuel said 7:10PM on 2-08-2007
The commands are the Unix ones, so yes they are the same as Linux, checkout this webpage http://www.indiana.edu/~uitspubs/b017/ although what I recommend you is to use the "apropos" command to find the command you need to use and the "man namecommand" to read the documentation. Try it doing "man apropos".
Reply
Hello said 12:47AM on 2-09-2007
I currently use AppZapper. How does AppDelete compare to AppZapper?
Reply
japtor said 3:24AM on 2-09-2007
the problem with just rm'ing when something is in use is that it doesnt actually free up the space until the item stops being in use. its just sort of in purgatory and still taking up space until then. (but then again, its not a huge issue unless its a big file and you are low on space)
Reply
Jan-Paul Bultmann said 6:04AM on 2-09-2007
You can also delete files that are in use by just klicking secure empty trash.^^
Reply
Sky Van Idersitne said 12:22AM on 2-23-2007
Hi, I am the creator of this video, and I am honored to have it posted on tuaw.com. Thank you! Please check out all of my Mac video tutorials at www.mymac.tk or youtube.com/mactalk.
Reply