Windows Registry files cannot be deleted from Trash.

Matthew Wai · 07-24-2025, 08:03 AM

On a Chinese forum, a member has failed to delete the following files from Trash.

Code:

user@user-PC:~$ ls ~/.l*/s*/T*/f*/|while IFS= read -r X;do echo "${X}";done
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\kingsoft\Office\6.0\plugins\kcopilotentrylite\aibrandcfg
HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwarekingsoftOffice6.0pluginskcopilotentryliteaibrandcfg

The files were created in the Home folder when WPS Office was opened.
He/she used the command "rm" but to no avail.

Code:

user@user-PC:~$ cd ~/.local/share/Trash/files 
user@user-PC:~/.local/share/Trash/files$ 
user@user-PC:~/.local/share/Trash/files$ file="HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\kingsoft\Office\6.0\plugins\kcopilotentrylite\aibrandcfg" 
user@user-PC:~/.local/share/Trash/files$ 
user@user-PC:~/.local/share/Trash/files$  rm -rf "${file}"

How can the files be deleted?

Source: https://bbs.chinauos.com/post/22783

teckk · 07-24-2025, 08:36 AM

Code:

file="HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\kingsoft\Office\6.0\plugins\kcopilotentrylite\aibrandcfg"

rm -rf "${file}"

That isn't a file. It is a partial directory path. Or do you actually have a file named that? If so \ is not allowed in file names. You'll need to escape all of them.

\ is an escape char.

Quote:

How can the files be deleted?

File or files?

You can delete everything in a directory

Code:

~/.local/share/Trash/files/
~/.local/share/Trash/

jayjwa · 07-24-2025, 09:13 AM

The problem comes from the while loop and the way the files are display from the while loop and not from rm itself. You can delete them by hand with rm when the one with backslashes is single quoted or remove everything prefixed with HKEY (or just delete all files in trash). I'm assuming bash as your shell.

Code:

[09:58] jayjwa@atr2:~/.local/share/Trash/files$ touch 'HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\kingsoft\Office\6.0\plugins\kcopilotentrylite\aibrandcfg'
[09:59] jayjwa@atr2:~/.local/share/Trash/files$ touch 'HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwarekingsoftOffice6.0pluginskcopilotentryliteaibrandcfg'
[09:59] jayjwa@atr2:~/.local/share/Trash/files$ ls -l
total 0
-rw------- 1 jayjwa users 0 Jul 24 09:59 'HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\kingsoft\Office\6.0\plugins\kcopilotentrylite\aibrandcfg'
-rw------- 1 jayjwa users 0 Jul 24 09:59  HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwarekingsoftOffice6.0pluginskcopilotentryliteaibrandcfg
[09:59] jayjwa@atr2:~/.local/share/Trash/files$ rm -f ~/.local/share/Trash/files/HKEY_*
[09:59] jayjwa@atr2:~/.local/share/Trash/files$ ls -l
total 0
[09:59] jayjwa@atr2:~/.local/share/Trash/files$

You can also use find.

Code:

[10:07] jayjwa@atr2:~/.local/share/Trash/files$ touch 'HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\kingsoft\Office\6.0\plugins\kcopilotentrylite\aibrandcfg'
[10:07] jayjwa@atr2:~/.local/share/Trash/files$ touch 'HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwarekingsoftOffice6.0pluginskcopilotentryliteaibrandcfg'
[10:08] jayjwa@atr2:~/.local/share/Trash/files$ ls -l
total 0
-rw------- 1 jayjwa users 0 Jul 24 10:07 'HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\kingsoft\Office\6.0\plugins\kcopilotentrylite\aibrandcfg'
-rw------- 1 jayjwa users 0 Jul 24 10:07  HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwarekingsoftOffice6.0pluginskcopilotentryliteaibrandcfg
[10:08] jayjwa@atr2:~/.local/share/Trash/files$ find ~/.local/share/Trash/files -name '*' -type f -delete 
[10:08] jayjwa@atr2:~/.local/share/Trash/files$ ls -l
total 0

TB0ne · 07-24-2025, 09:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by teckk

Code:

file="HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\kingsoft\Office\6.0\plugins\kcopilotentrylite\aibrandcfg"
rm -rf "${file}"

That isn't a file. It is a partial directory path. Or do you actually have a file named that? If so \ is not allowed in file names. You'll need to escape all of them. \ is an escape char.

Quote:

=How can the files be deleted?

File or files? You can delete everything in a directory

Code:

~/.local/share/Trash/files/
~/.local/share/Trash/

Agree with this method...why do anything more than what's needed, especially to delete files already in a 'trash' folder? "rm -fr *" should work fine within the Trash folder. Any folder beneath it will just get recreated when new files get deleted.

Matthew Wai · 07-25-2025, 02:14 AM

Thanks to all of you!
I have just asked him/her to run the following command:

Code:

rm -rf ~/.local/share/Trash/files/*

Reference: https://bbs.chinauos.com/post/22783?postId=108626

Matthew Wai · 07-25-2025, 02:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by teckk

do you actually have a file named that?

He or she posted the following screenshot:

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw...2-h304-s-no-gm

pan64 · 07-25-2025, 02:38 AM

I don't know what is that on the picture, but I guess rm HKEY_* should work.

Matthew Wai · 07-25-2025, 02:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TB0ne

"rm -fr *" should work fine within the Trash folder.

I think "rm -fr *" will delete files from the Home folder.

pan64 · 07-25-2025, 02:43 AM

obviously cd to that dir first

Matthew Wai · 07-25-2025, 02:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pan64

obviously cd to that dir first

Obviously, a beginner might run a command without thinking about "cd".

Matthew Wai · 07-25-2025, 02:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jayjwa

rm -f ~/.local/share/Trash/files/HKEY_*

I will ask him or her to run your command in case the command in my post #5 fails.

pan64 · 07-25-2025, 02:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Matthew Wai

I will ask him or her to run your command in case the command in my post #5 fails.

That is identical. Anyway, I think you can help him/her to delete those files without LQ, but if you need further help you need to ask for and give us more info, more details.

TB0ne · 07-25-2025, 08:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Matthew Wai

Obviously, a beginner might run a command without thinking about "cd".

Obviously, you would tell the 'he or she' to do so before passing on that command, right??? And if you read what I posted, I said specifically to run it **WITHIN** the Trash folder. That would remove any files and directories...and as said before they will be re-created the next time a file is deleted.

And is there a reason your 'friend' can't post their own questions???

Steve48220 · 07-25-2025, 12:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TB0ne

And is there a reason your 'friend' can't post their own questions???

The original post stated that it was from a Chinese forum. It would be logical to think that the 'friend' doesn't understand English well enough to post here. It would also be logical to believe that has English as a second language might not understand all the nuances of the English language. Saying 'within' could have multiple meanings.

TB0ne · 07-25-2025, 01:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steve48220

The original post stated that it was from a Chinese forum. It would be logical to think that the 'friend' doesn't understand English well enough to post here. It would also be logical to believe that has English as a second language might not understand all the nuances of the English language. Saying 'within' could have multiple meanings.

Also logical to think that if the OP can communicate, their 'friend' can as well, and can go to the OP for any misunderstandings/miscommunications.