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By Billifer on Jan 25, 2008 | Reply

@Dustin » I was incorrect in what I wrote previously. It is unnecessary to lock the directory, but you will want to lock the Icon file (or it will be deleted).

This can be accomplished in the Terminal as mentioned above with chmod a-w Icon<Tab> or, alternatively, chflags uchg Icon<tab>.

By Billifer on Apr 4, 2008 | Reply

Hey EZG –

I haven’t updated my post here, but I’m actually using a different script myself now. Try this one instead:

property findCmd : "/usr/bin/find" -- Modify if find(1) is elsewhere
property srmCmd : "/usr/bin/srm"   -- Modify if srm(1) is elsewhere
property srmFlags : "-rz"          -- See man page of srm(1)

on adding folder items to this_folder after receiving added_items
    try
        tell application "Finder"
            -- get the name of the folder
            set fName to POSIX path of this_folder
            set alertTitle to name of this_folder
        end tell

        -- prompt user for confirmation to securely delete
        set usrButton to (display dialog "About to permanently and securely delete files. Continue?" buttons {"Do it now!", "No!"} default button "No!" cancel button "No!" with title alertTitle with icon caution)

        if (button returned of usrButton) = "Do it now!" then
            set srmScript to findCmd & " " & fName & " -mindepth 1 -exec " & srmCmd & " " & srmFlags & " {} \;"
            do shell script srmScript
            display alert alertTitle message "Secure deletion completed" as informational buttons {"Ok"} default button "Ok" giving up after 10
        end if
    end try
end adding folder items to

Add that as a folder action script to your Incinerator instead. It should work like a charm for you.

By Billifer on Apr 4, 2008 | Reply

Glad you got it working! Definitely makes it easier than having to run srm from the Terminal every time—and using “Secure Empty Trash” only zeros the space, not the 7-pass or 35-pass wipe.

By Billifer on Apr 6, 2008 | Reply

Hmm… I can’t remember where that one came from. I would be able to tell you, except that I’ve gone through two hard drive crashes and at least as many system reinstalls since I took that screen capture, so it’s not in my CandyBar / Pixadex catalog anymore.

Silly question, but did you try retyping that line or copying and pasting? Just to make sure I didn’t mistype it, here it is again:

set srmScript to findCmd & " " & fName & " -mindepth 1 -exec " & srmCmd & " " & srmFlags & " {} \;"

There are a lot of quote marks in that line. Don’t drown in them. :) You can separate that into multiple lines if you wish for readability:

set srmScript to findCmd & " "
set srmScript to srmScript & fName
set srmScript to srmScript & " -mindepth 1 -exec "
set srmScript to srmScript & srmCmd
set srmScript to srmScript & " "
set srmScript to srmScript & srmFlags
set srmScript to srmScript & " {} \;"

If you still have problems compiling, then email me your script—comment1241 {at} paxoo(.)com.

By Billifer on Apr 6, 2008 | Reply

Hi Billifer,

It’s themonkman from your blog. I’m still having problems compiling your Incinerator script, as it gives a “Expected “”” but found unknown token.” at the last semicolon of the following statement in your script:

set srmScript to srmScript & " {} \;"

I did cut and paste it directly from your website, so I’m unsure of what I’m doing wrong. Thanks for your help.

DOH! Totally my own fault. Huge typo. Try an extra backslash:

set srmScript to srmScript & " {} \\;"

That should do the trick. When I typed that out earlier, my Script Editor window was just the right size that the first one was the last character on one line and the second was the first character on the next line, so I only saw one of them.

By Billifer on Apr 6, 2008 | Reply

You could try two things.

1. Open Applications > Utilities > Activity Monitor, sort by CPU so that the larger numbers are at top, and then, while that window is still on screen, move a file into your Incineratr. Watch to see whether there are any occurrences of srm, find, etc., near the top. There should be; this indicates that these apps are running and getting CPU time.
2. Use print-style debugging. You might change the simple do shell script line to:

   display alert "DEBUG" message "Command to run: " & srmScript as informational buttons {"Ok"} default button "Ok"
   set srmReturn to (do shell script srmScript)
   display alert alertTitle message "Secure deletion completed with" & return & "value = " & srmReturn as informational buttons {"Ok"} default button "Ok"

If the secure deletion works, it should say “value = 0”. (Haven’t checked that for accuracy, and my mind is a bit muddy right now. Hope it works correctly.)

So I’d suggest trying that and see what the issue might be. It’s possible it could be that you’re trying to secure erase something you shouldn’t—I intentionally wrote the script not to prompt for the administrator password when needed, and instead to delete. You’d hate to toss /Library into the Incineratr and see your whole system go up in flames!

By Billifer on May 16, 2008 | Reply

@Serenity » From what I remember reading, Secure Empty uses srm in the zero disk space mode. And, if you’ve ever run Secure Empty Trash on a large amount of trash, then you’ll know that there’s no way srm could have done a 7-pass wipe in the time that Secure Empty Trash deletes the contents of the trash. I would look it up on adc.apple.com, but I’m lazy.