Q: How do I get the trash to empty a stubborn time machine file?

I have to offer an important correction to my post. If you are going to su to the admin account, the command you would run would instead be

sudo rm -rf /Users/user_name/.Trash

A hypothetical example could be for the short name abcd:

sudo rm -rf /Users/abcd/.Trash

Pay exact attention to the spaces in that command. There are spaces after sudo, after rm and after -rf. The rest of the command has no spaces. 

Using the command as given in my previous post would affect the Trash folder in the admin account whose privileges you are assuming, not  the account with the problematic Trash.

If however you change your standard account to an admin one, assuming you are running standard, you can use the original command.

If this doesn't resolve the Trash issue, or if you are not running from a standard account,  then there is a problem with the sudoers file. Mr. Davis should be able to help you with that rather than suggesting a reinstall.

Another possibility is to use a small program called Trash it.

http://www.nonamescriptware.com/

https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/8214/trash-it!

Perhaps it would clear things up if you explained why deleting items in the trash is so dangerous. I typically put some files in the trash and sometimes I delete things from the command line. I've never had a need to rm from the trash, but I am unaware of any catastrophic results. If there is a problem doing that, can you explain what it is?

I think the greatest ristk to that command is the possibility of spaces. As much as we tell people to use copy and paste, they don't have to.

This command is safe:

rm -Rf ~/.DS_Store

This command is not:

rm -Rf ~ /.DS_Store

Adding sudo to the mix doesn't help.

In my experience there are times when Finder flags get screwed up and Finder refuses to empty the trash even with the option key. In the past, I've typically moved items out of the trash to delete them from the command line. I don't have a specific reason for doing that other than my own paranoia. If there is supporting evidence for my paranoia, I would like to know what it is.

It is my opinion that asking people to revert to the command line is an almost total failure as far as Mac support goes. It reminds me very much of the bad old days of Windows and DOS. I would like to think that the Mac is better than that. Sadly, the Mac has grown in complexity over the years and sometimes it isn't better than that.

However, if you must fall back to using the command line, there is no need to skimp on it and try to do everything in one shot. A safer alternative would be the following:

cd ~/.Trash

pwd

rm -R *

Catastrophic results are still possible, but only due to wanton user neglent, not typos.

HowardfromChampaign wrote:

 

I deleted some time machine directories (yes, I know you should not do that) and I am left with one stubborn file in the trash that I can not delete.  I am running OSX 10.8.4.  I tried the Sudo command and the chgflag commands from the following apple web pages

 

The file is named "boot.efi" and is locked where I do not have the permissions

I think it is safe to assume your Time Machine backup is now hopelessly corrupt. Just eject the Time Machine drive and the file will go away from the trash.  In fact, it was never in ~/.Trash to begin with.

Then, use Disk Utility to erase your Time Machine backup. Then build a new Time Machine. You will be good as new.

If not running from a standard account, (note, I said What might be going on) this is the likely fix for the screwed up permissions for the sudoers file.

https://discussions.apple.com/message/18135433#18135433

I am referring to posts by Adam Wenocur here.

Well, maybe not good as new. At a mimimum you do need to repair permissions. I don't want to you run any "sudo" commands but you should be able to. The fact that you can't means something is screwed up.

Perhaps you should wait on deleting that Time Machine drive.  It is corrupt and will certainly never work properly again, nor should you even attemp to use it. Go into System Preferences and turn off Time Machine.

Depending on what is wrong with your system you may need to restore manually.

Unfortunately, this is the only truly safe course of action for you at this point:

1) Run Disk Utility and Repair Permissions

2) Buy a new hard drive at least as big as your start up drive

3) Run Disk Utility and use its backup facility to backup your start up drive to your new hard drive

4) Now erase your old Time Machine backup

5) Create a new Time Machine backup

If your system functions normally at this point, you should be good to go. The fact that files like "boot.efi" have been mentioned make we very worried about the integrity of your start up volume. Your Time Machine is corrupt, but it may be all you have. You need another backup before proceeding. You may very well need to reinstall your OS and you will need another, valid backup before doing that.

Generally new to the Apple support community. It terms of long-time experienced community members, I'll be taking advice and seeking help from those like kappy and etre who actually use their expertise for the benefit of other community members rather than for petty praise. When you ask them "why?" the answer isn't just, "because."

"True knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance"

oh, and etrecheck is awesome.

Cheers.

As posted earlier, ordinarily holding the Option key while emptying the trash will work, but sometimes it doesn't.

In those cases, see #E6 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting.  It shows how to use Terminal safely to empty the trash on a Time Machine drive/partition.