nuke - A Safer, Faster, and More User-Friendly Alternative to rm

nuke is a command-line utility written in Go that provides a safer, faster, and more user-friendly alternative to the standard rm command. It features soft-delete (trash) functionality, concurrent file deletion, smart filtering, safety checks, and secure file shredding.

Features

🛡️ Safety Features

• Soft Delete (Trash): Files are moved to a trash directory instead of being permanently deleted
• Protected Paths: Critical system paths are protected from accidental deletion
• Dangerous Pattern Detection: Warns about risky operations like deleting / or using wildcards
• Typed Confirmation: Requires "yes I am sure" for dangerous operations
• Countdown Timer: 5-second countdown for large deletions (Ctrl+C to abort)
• Confirmation Prompts: Asks for y/n confirmation before proceeding

⚡ Performance

• Concurrent Deletion: Multi-threaded file deletion using configurable worker pools
• Progress Bar: Visual progress indication for large operations
• Efficient Scanning: Fast file system traversal

🎯 Smart Filtering

• Time-based: --older-than=30d, --newer-than=24h
• Size-based: --size=+100M (larger than), --size=-1G (smaller than)
• Pattern-based: --exclude=*.cfg, --include=*.log
• Regex Support: --regex=".*\.tmp$"

🔒 Security

• Secure Shredding: Overwrites files with random data before deletion (--shred)
• Multiple Overwrite Passes: DoD-standard 3-pass overwrite

Installation

macOS (Apple Silicon)

curl -L https://github.com/amantham20/nuke_rm/releases/latest/download/nuke-darwin-arm64 -o nuke
chmod +x nuke
sudo mv nuke /usr/local/bin/

macOS (Intel)

curl -L https://github.com/amantham20/nuke_rm/releases/latest/download/nuke-darwin-amd64 -o nuke
chmod +x nuke
sudo mv nuke /usr/local/bin/

Linux (x86_64)

curl -L https://github.com/amantham20/nuke_rm/releases/latest/download/nuke-linux-amd64 -o nuke
chmod +x nuke
sudo mv nuke /usr/local/bin/

Linux (ARM64)

curl -L https://github.com/amantham20/nuke_rm/releases/latest/download/nuke-linux-arm64 -o nuke
chmod +x nuke
sudo mv nuke /usr/local/bin/

From Source

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/amantham20/nuke_rm.git
cd nuke_rm

# Build
go build -o nuke .

# Install (optional)
sudo mv nuke /usr/local/bin/

# Or use make
make build
make install

Requirements (for building from source)

• Go 1.21 or later

Usage

Basic Commands

# Delete a single file
nuke file.txt

# Delete directory recursively
nuke -r directory/

# Delete with force (skip confirmation)
nuke -f file.txt

# Preview what would be deleted (dry run)
nuke --dry-run *.log

Filtering

# Delete files older than 30 days
nuke -r --older-than=30d logs/

# Delete files larger than 100MB
nuke -r --size=+100M downloads/

# Delete all except .cfg files
nuke -r --exclude=*.cfg config/

# Delete files matching regex
nuke -r --regex=".*\.tmp$" /tmp/

Trash Operations

# Show what's in the trash
nuke --show-trash

# Restore a file from trash
nuke --restore=file.txt

# Auto-cleanup trash based on retention policy
nuke --cleanup-trash

# Empty the trash permanently
nuke --empty-trash

Secure Deletion

# Securely shred a sensitive file (bypasses trash)
nuke --shred secret.txt

Interactive Mode

# Ask for confirmation for each file
nuke -i -r directory/
# Options: y (yes), n (no), a (all), q (quit)

Options

Flag	Description
-h, --help	Show help message
-r, --recursive	Delete directories recursively
-f, --force	Skip confirmation prompts
-i, --interactive	Ask for confirmation for each file
-v, --verbose	Show detailed output
--dry-run	Preview deletion without modifying files
--shred	Securely overwrite files before deletion
--no-countdown	Skip the countdown timer
--empty-trash	Permanently delete all files in trash
--restore=<file>	Restore a file from trash
--older-than=<dur>	Filter by age (e.g., 30d, 24h, 1w)
--newer-than=<dur>	Filter by age
--size=<size>	Filter by size (+100M for >100MB, -1G for <1GB)
--exclude=<pattern>	Exclude files matching glob pattern
--include=<pattern>	Include only files matching glob pattern
--regex=<pattern>	Match files using regex pattern
--workers=<n>	Number of concurrent workers (default: 8)

Configuration

You can customize protected paths by creating a config file at ~/.config/nuke/config.yaml:

# Additional paths to protect from deletion
protected_paths:
  - "~/important_project"
  - "/data/backups"
  - "*.critical"

Default Protected Paths

The following paths are protected by default:

• /, /bin, /sbin, /usr, /etc, /var, /lib, /boot
• /sys, /proc, /dev, /System, /Library (macOS)
• ~/.ssh, ~/.gnupg, ~/.config
• .git/ directories

Trash Location

Deleted files are stored in ~/.nuke-trash/:

• ~/.nuke-trash/files/ - Actual files
• ~/.nuke-trash/meta/ - Metadata for restoration

Automatic Trash Cleanup

The trash is never automatically deleted on its own. Files persist in trash indefinitely until you explicitly manage them:

1. Manual empty: nuke --empty-trash - Permanently deletes ALL trash
2. Auto-cleanup: nuke --cleanup-trash - Removes files older than the retention period or enforces size limits
3. Restore: nuke --restore=<filename> - Recover deleted files before they're cleaned up

Trash Retention Policy

Configure retention in ~/.config/nuke/config.yaml:

# How long to keep files in trash before auto-delete (default: 30 days)
trash_retention_days: 30

# Maximum trash directory size in MB (default: 5000 MB = 5 GB)
trash_max_size_mb: 5000

# Enable automatic cleanup (default: true)
auto_cleanup_enabled: true

When nuke --cleanup-trash runs:

1. Files older than trash_retention_days are removed
2. If trash exceeds trash_max_size_mb, oldest files are removed first until within limit
3. Files younger than the retention period are kept (unless size limit forces removal)

Examples

Delete old log files

nuke -r --older-than=7d --include="*.log" /var/log/myapp/

Clean up large temporary files

nuke -r --size=+50M --include="*.tmp" /tmp/

Systemd auto-cleanup (Linux)

If you want nuke to automatically run trash cleanup on a schedule using systemd timers, the repository includes a service and timer unit and a small installer script.

Files added:

• systemd/nuke-cleanup.service — oneshot service that runs nuke --cleanup-trash
• systemd/nuke-cleanup.timer — timer unit (defaults to OnCalendar=daily)
• scripts/install-systemd.sh — helper script to install and enable the timer (supports --user and --system modes and --nuke-path to set binary path)

Install (user mode, recommended):

# Make the installer executable
chmod +x scripts/install-systemd.sh
# Install into the current user's systemd user units
./scripts/install-systemd.sh --user --nuke-path /usr/local/bin/nuke

# Inspect status
systemctl --user status nuke-cleanup.timer

Install system-wide (requires root):

sudo ./scripts/install-systemd.sh --system --nuke-path /usr/local/bin/nuke
systemctl status nuke-cleanup.timer

Notes:

• Systemd timers only apply on Linux systems with systemd. On macOS use launchd or a cron job instead.
• If the nuke binary is not in the PATH of the systemd service, pass --nuke-path or edit the installed service file to point to the full path of the binary.

launchd auto-cleanup (macOS)

For macOS you can use launchd to schedule automatic cleanup. This repository includes a sample plist and an installer script that installs the plist into ~/Library/LaunchAgents and loads it for the current user.

Files added:

• launchd/com.nuke.nuke-cleanup.plist — sample plist that runs nuke --cleanup-trash daily at 02:00 by default
• scripts/install-launchd.sh — helper script to install and load the plist (supports --nuke-path and schedule --hour/--minute)

Install (user mode, recommended):

# Make installer executable
chmod +x scripts/install-launchd.sh
# Install into current user's LaunchAgents and load
./scripts/install-launchd.sh --nuke-path /usr/local/bin/nuke --hour 2 --minute 0

# Check the job
launchctl list | grep com.nuke.cleanup

Uninstall (user):

# Unload and remove
launchctl unload ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.nuke.nuke-cleanup.plist 2>/dev/null || true
rm ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.nuke.nuke-cleanup.plist

Notes:

• launchd runs on macOS only. If launchctl load fails, run the installer manually or inspect the plist.
• If the nuke binary isn't in /usr/local/bin, pass the full path with --nuke-path to the installer, or edit the plist directly.

Secure deletion of sensitive data

nuke --shred -r sensitive_data/

Preview and confirm

# First, preview
nuke --dry-run -r old_project/

# Then, delete interactively
nuke -i -r old_project/

Safety Comparison with rm

Feature	rm	nuke
Undo/Restore	❌	✅
Progress Bar	❌	✅
Dangerous Path Protection	❌	✅
Countdown Timer	❌	✅
Time/Size Filtering	❌	✅
Secure Shredding	❌	✅
Concurrent Deletion	❌	✅
Dry Run Mode	❌	✅
Interactive Mode	Partial	✅

License

MIT License

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.