How can I move files to the Recycle Bin in a Windows batch script or Perl?

Question

I've got a Windows XP batch script which cleans some directories, but I would like to move the deleted files to trash instead of using plain del. How is this done?

It looks like the only languages I can use for this is plain batch or Perl.

Answer 1

Write a VBS script (Original Link) then call it with MyDelScript.vbs

function main()
{
  if (WScript.Arguments.length != 1)
  {
    WScript.Echo("<Insert informative error message here>");
    return;
  }

  var Path = WScript.Arguments(0);
  var Shell = WScript.CreateObject("Shell.Application");
  var Item = Shell.Namespace(0).ParseName(Path);
  Item.InvokeVerb("delete");
}

Answer 2

You could use the "recycle" utility which is part of CmdUtils from MaDdoG Software. From the page listing -

• Recycle, a safe replacement for the DEL command, that sends files to the recycle bin instead of deleting them. Recycle is also more flexible than DEL; you can specify multiple files at once (or use wildcards), and you can recycle whole directories at once (be careful!)

I would suggest you try its various switches before you incorporate it into your script - there is quite a bit of deviation from the default behaviour of the "del" command.

Answer 3

use Win32::FileOp qw(Recycle);
Recycle(@ARGV);

Answer 4

The Win32::FileOp module has a Recycle function. From the docs:

Recycle @filenames

Send the files into the recycle bin. You will not get any confirmation dialogs. Returns true if successful.

Answer 5

UPDATE: Contrary to my original claim that the following code does not work, it indeed seems to work. I just forgot that the file I wanted to delete was not in $ENV{TEMP} but a subdirectory of $ENV{TEMP}. The problem is, the file does not go to the Recycle Bin.

The right solution is to use Win32::FileOp but I am going to leave this script here as an example of how to use Win32::API and Win32::API::Struct. I would appreciate it if anyone can point out what I am doing wrong. For your reference:

SHFileOperation: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb762164(VS.85).aspx

LPSHFILEOPSTRUCT: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb759795(VS.85).aspx

#!/usr/bin/perl

use strict;
use warnings;

use File::Spec::Functions qw( catfile );
use Win32::API;

Win32::API::Struct->typedef(
    SHFILEOPSTRUCT => qw(
        HWND hwnd;
        UINT wFunc;
        LPCTSTR pFrom;
        LPCTSTR pTo;
        FILEOP_FLAGS fFlags;
        BOOL fAnyOperationsAborted;
        LPVOID hNameMappings;
        LPCTSTR lpszProgressTitle;
    )
);

Win32::API->Import(
    shell32 => q{ int SHFileOperation( LPSHFILEOPSTRUCT lpFileOp ) }
);

my $op = Win32::API::Struct->new( 'SHFILEOPSTRUCT' );
$op->{wFunc}  = 0x0003; # FO_DELETE from ShellAPI.h
$op->{fFlags} = 0x0040; # FOF_ALLOWUNDO from ShellAPI.h

my $to_delete = catfile( $ENV{TEMP}, "test.file" );
$op->{pFrom}  = $to_delete . "\0\0";

my $result = SHFileOperation( $op );

if ( $result ) {
    warn sprintf "The operation failed: %4.4X\n", $result;
}
else {
    if ( $op->{fAnyOperationsAborted} ) {
        warn "Operation was aborted\n";
    }
    else {
        warn "The operation succeeded\n";
    }
}
__END__