- Jan
- 615
- 15
Could I get more clarification on what the RECYCLE command does or is supposed to do? For each of the examples below I will be starting with a default set of 5 files in the recycle bin.
The documentation for RECYCLE says
If this is by design then it's perfectly acceptable, however it would be nice to mention that "display" only shows a summary.
Continuing with display, my eyes are next drawn to the text in parentheses... "(or paths)". This is understood as "you can specify a particular path and display its deleted files".
This leads to the delete part. The documentation clearly states
It did what it said and emptied the entire drive, however, still confusing.
About the /P switch and "If you don't specify any drives...." After testing, it seems that you are required to specify the drive in this case.
A final comment, you might want to mention when specifying drives that the colon is required after the drive letter.
I haven't done any testing with multiple drive letters since my only other drives, currently, are network drives that aren't set up to recycle.
Code:
[C:\test]for /l %i in (1,1,5) echos file%i > file%i
[C:\test]dir /hkw
file1 file2 file3 file4 file5
25 bytes in 5 files and 0 dirs 20,480 bytes allocated
47,548,751,872 bytes free
[C:\test]del /y *
Deleting C:\test\file1
Deleting C:\test\file2
Deleting C:\test\file3
Deleting C:\test\file4
Deleting C:\test\file5
5 files deleted
[C:\test]
The display part is the first part of my question. When I read the docs, I take "display" and "everything" to mean "show me a list of all the files in the recycle bin", yet I only get a summary.If you don't specify any drives (or paths), RECYCLE will delete (or display) everything in the recycle bin for all local drives.
Code:
[C:\test]recycle
C:\ : 25 bytes in 5 files
[C:\test]
Continuing with display, my eyes are next drawn to the text in parentheses... "(or paths)". This is understood as "you can specify a particular path and display its deleted files".
Code:
[C:\test]recycle c:
c: : 25 bytes in 5 files
[C:\test]recycle c:\
c:\ : 25 bytes in 5 files
[C:\test]recycle c:\test
c:\test : 25 bytes in 5 files
[C:\test]recycle c:\apparently\everything\after\the\colon\is\ignored
c:\apparently\everything\after\the\colon\is\ignored : 25 bytes in 5 files
[C:\test]
yet there is still the confusion of the "(or paths)".RECYCLE will empty the recycle bin for an entire drive; there is no way to specify individual files.
Code:
[C:\test]recycle /d c:\all\i\want\for\christmas\is\my\two\front\teeth
c:\all\i\want\for\christmas\is\my\two\front\teeth
[C:\test]recycle
C:\ : 0 bytes in 0 files
[C:\test]
About the /P switch and "If you don't specify any drives...." After testing, it seems that you are required to specify the drive in this case.
Code:
[C:\test]recycle /d /p
[C:\test]recycle
C:\ : 25 bytes in 5 files
[C:\test]recycle /d /p c:
c: : Are you sure (Y/N)? Y
[C:\test]recycle
C:\ : 0 bytes in 0 files
[C:\test]
Code:
[C:\test]recycle
C:\ : 25 bytes in 5 files
[C:\test]recycle c
c : 0 bytes in 0 files
[C:\test]recycle
C:\ : 25 bytes in 5 files
[C:\test]recycle /d
C:\
[C:\test]recycle /d c
cTCC: (Sys) The operation completed successfully.
"c"
[C:\test]recycle /d /p c
c : Are you sure (Y/N)? Y
TCC: (Sys) An attempt was made to reference a token that does not exist.
"c"
[C:\test]