Baltimore, MD -July 2025.
GNOME fixes the Trash bug from 2009!
GNOME Desktop had a bug in the Trash function where the leftover files from the user-wide expunged trash directory, found in ~/.local/share/Trash/expunged, were not being deleted properly, and that the Nautilus file manager, which GNOME uses, inaccurately reported that the trash was empty. This bug was originally reported in Ubuntu’s Launchpad under the title of “Emptying the trash can lead to have files still on disk in expunged.”
This caused problems with the free disk space, since the bug reporter had stated that they had about 70 GB of files in the expunged directory, which were handled incorrectly when emptying the trash. Furthermore, said directory was found in the hidden .local folder underneath your home directory, which was not obvious to the average user. This was said to be due to wrong permissions being applied to the offending files, and a reproducer was found:
mkdir -p test/roottouch test/root/filesudo chown root:root test/rootThis followed the two chained rules, first for trashing and second for emptying, where, ipsis verbis:
So, essentially, this boils down to:
test directory is made by the current user (assume that the current user is aptivi)root directory inside the user-owned test directory is made by aptivifile, which aptivi owned, was created inside the root directoryroot directory’s owner had changed to the root usertest directory can be moved to aptivi‘s trash, since the first chained rule has been followedtest was owned by aptivi and had a parent directory that was also owned by aptiviroot directory can’t be deleted from aptivi‘s trash, since the second chained rule has been followedroot, a non-empty directory owned by root, was inside test, owned by aptivi, and the root directory can’t be removedroot directory can now be found underneath the expunged folder under aptivi‘s .local folderThe appropriate GNOME bug tracker ticket was brought to the upstream developers six years ago from writing who confirmed that the issue was happening. According to this blog post, the merge request was submitted to the GNOME project, which was approved. The fix is now at the upstream GLib code.
An internal function was added to the I/O part of the GLib library, called check_removing_recursively(), that checked whether “subsequently deleting the original file from the trash (in the gvfsd-trash process) will succeed.” It also checked the ownership of the files before deletion and automatically assigned the file mode (chmod) to allow deletion.
That filled one of the TODO tasks in the I/O code that handled emptying the trash in the internal function, g_local_file_trash(). It said “Maybe we should verify that you can delete the file from the trash before moving it? OTOH, that is hard, as it needs a recursive scan.”
Now, you can empty the trash without worrying about the free disk space, but only if your Linux distribution uses a version of GNOME that contains this fix. We expect that this fix will land to several distributions in the coming days or weeks.
Pro tip: to eliminate the remaining expunged files after installing the fixed version of GNOME, use this trick to free up disk space.
#GNOME #GNOMEDesktop #Linux #LinuxDesktop #news #Tech #Technology #Trash #TrashBin #update
Someone has thrown cardboard away, but not in the trash bin
#München #Munich #muenchen #photography #photo #street #citylife #stadtfotografie #streetphotography #cityphoto #stadtleben #stadtansichten #straßenfotografie #fotografie #straße #stadt #schwarzweiß #blackandwhite #trashbin #garbagebin
#ClearingMyMind with more random #freeform text:
I blocked a bot and I felt good. #botspam
You throw accounts at me and I throw them in the #trashbin.
I get #SoMuchPleasure from this. So much pleasure, you are pleasuring me, #StopIt! #Please stop it!
I don't deserve this pleasure.
I go back into the bin and I pick you out just perhaps I can salvage some of your parts to use in my other projects.
A happy trash bin behind a local Italian restaurant.
📷: Konica T2
🎞: Arista Edu 200 (Foma 200)
🛁: Kodak D-76 & Ilford Rapid Fix
#analogphotography #analoguephotography #filmphotography #konica #konicat2 #aristaedu200 #fomapan200 #fomapan #kodakd76 #vintagecamera #believeinfilm #shootfilmnotpeople #trashbin #grafitti
If it works everywhere, it can work in #Brussels
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RT @dimitristrobbe
I cycled >2.000km and I didn’t see any plastic waste bag on the street. I took some photos where cities implemented interesting alternatives. What do you think? What should Brussels do? Thread 👇
Ex 1: Cànoves i Samalús 🇪🇸 #trash #trashbin #waste #publicspace @canovesisamalus
https://twitter.com/dimitristrobbe/status/1424595348861952001
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RT @dimitristrobbe
I cycled >2.000km and I didn’t see any plastic waste bag on the street. I took some photos where cities implemented interesting alternatives. What do you think? What should Brussels do? Thread 👇
Ex 1: Cànoves i Samalús 🇪🇸 #trash #trashbin #waste #publicspace @canovesisamalus
https://twitter.com/dimitristrobbe/status/1424595348861952001
The city’s Public Works Department has announced that the “Slim Silhouette” will be SF’s new public trash can. While the prototype ran some $18,800, city officials said the mass-produced bins will be more cost-efficient at $2,000-$3,000 a can. Design adjustments and necessary approval processes to follow. #SFBA #SF #SFNews #trash #TrashCan #TrashBin
https://missionlocal.org/2022/12/sfs-trash-can-contest-the-second-most-costly-can-wins/