Linux – Where do files and directories go when I run ‘rm -rf folder_or_file_name’ in Ubuntu 10.04

Short version: Open trash:// in Nautilus. You don't need to know where it is located physically; just use "Empty Trash".

Longer version:

• If the file was on the same filesystem as your (root's) home directory:
  ~/.local/share/Trash/

• If it was on a separate filesystem, and <rootdir>/.Trash/ exists and is mode 01777:
  <rootdir>/.Trash/<uid>/

• If it was on a separate filesystem, but <rootdir>/.Trash/ doesn't exist or has wrong permissions:
  <rootdir>/.Trash-<uid>/

Here, <rootdir> is the root directory of that filesystem. In this case, it's /, so simply /.Trash and /.Trash-<uid>/.

<uid> is the user ID – in this case, 0 for root.

So the directory you are looking for is /root/.local/share/Trash/.

Files deleted using rm are not easily recovered and, although the contents are not overwritten by the rm command the space they occupy is marked as free space and can be used for new files or for additional content added to existing files.

As soon as the rmcommand completes, the system is no longer keeping any record of the location of the data for that file.

There are file-recovery tools you can use, but that is a separate question. If you don't have a backup - stop using the computer and look for file-recovery tools. Be prepared for total loss though as recovery is not guaranteed.

See

• Data recovery for OS X
• https://superuser.com/q/10101/52492
• How to recover deleted file in mac?
• Recover text file deleted from trash on Mac OS X?