---
id: send2trash
version: "2.1.0"
license: BSD-3-Clause
license_treatment: permissive
maintenance: active
---

# Send2Trash — Send file to trash natively under Mac OS X, Windows and Linux

License: permissive · Maintenance: active · Popularity: top 1,000 on PyPI

## Install

pip install send2trash
uv add send2trash
poetry add send2trash

## Description

==================================================
Send2Trash -- Send files to trash on all platforms
==================================================

Send2Trash is a small package that sends files to the Trash (or Recycle Bin) *natively* and on
*all platforms*. On OS X, it uses native ``FSMoveObjectToTrashSync`` Cocoa calls or can use pyobjc 
with NSFileManager. On Windows, it uses native ``IFileOperation`` call if on Vista or newer and 
pywin32 is installed or falls back to ``SHFileOperation`` calls. On other platforms, if `PyGObject`_ 
and `GIO`_ are available, it will use this.  Otherwise, it will fallback to its own implementation of 
the `trash specifications from freedesktop.org`_.

``ctypes`` is used to access native libraries, so no compilation is necessary.

Send2Trash supports Python 3 (versions before 2.x support Python 2).

Status: Additional Help Welcome
-------------------------------

Additional help is welcome for supporting this package.  Specifically help with the OSX and Linux 
issues and fixes would be most appreciated.

Installation
------------

You can download it with pip:

    python -m pip install -U send2trash

To...

## AI interpretation — verify before relying

Send2Trash moves files to the native trash or recycle bin on Windows, macOS, and Linux, using platform-specific APIs where available and falling back to freedesktop.org trash specifications.

Verdict: Mature, well-maintained, zero-dependency package for safe file deletion across platforms. No known vulnerabilities, permissive license, and active development make it a reliable choice for applications needing trash-bin semantics rather than permanent deletion.

[View on SkillFed](https://skillfed.io/packages/send2trash) · [View on PyPI](https://pypi.org/project/send2trash/)