Shred Extension Rs

A native, ultra-lightweight extension for the Nautilus (GNOME) and Thunar (XFCE) file managers that adds a permanent, government‑grade secure deletion option (Shred) to your file context menu.

Written in Rust, the extension focuses on high performance and maximum data destruction security. It communicates directly with low-level C APIs (GObject / libnautilus-extension / libthunarx) without bloated dependency layers.

✨ Features

• Native Context Menu Integration: A clear "Secure Delete" option available for any file in GNOME or XFCE file managers.

• Secure Empty Trash: Right-click the Trash icon or its background to securely wipe all deleted files. It recursively shreds the actual data on disk before removing entries from the trash system.

• Integrated Confirmation Dialog: To prevent accidental clicks and the headaches the shred command can cause when misused, the extension calls the system’s native dialog (zenity). A "Yes/OK" confirmation is required.

• Smart File Camouflage: Unlike the native shred -u behavior in the terminal (which briefly pollutes your folder with renamed artifacts like 000000), this extension hides files inside temporary "invisible" directories (starting with .). The deletion happens behind the scenes, silently.

• Modular Architecture (Workspace): Now structured as a Rust Workspace with zero cross-manager warnings. You can build specific extensions for Nautilus or Thunar without bloating the binary.

• Built‑in Internationalization (i18n): Automatic language detection based on the system locale to display menus and messages in:

  • 🇧🇷 Portuguese‑BR / PT ("Excluir com Segurança" / "Esvaziar Lixeira com Segurança")
  • 🇪🇸 Spanish ("Eliminación Segura" / "Vaciar Papelera de Forma Segura")
  • 🇺🇸 English / Fallback ("Secure Delete" / "Secure Empty Trash")

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📦 Installation & Build

You can install the extension in three different ways:

1. Arch Linux (AUR) — separate packages for each file manager
2. Universal automatic script (any distro)
3. Manual compilation (from source)

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🐧 Arch Linux (AUR)

If you use Arch Linux or derivatives (EndeavourOS, Manjaro, CachyOS, etc.), install directly from the AUR:

• Nautilus: yay -S shred-extension-rs-nautilus
• Thunar: yay -S shred-extension-rs-thunar

Both packages install the library in the correct system path.

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🚀 Automatic Installation (Any Linux Distribution)

You can install without downloading anything by running the script directly from the official repository:

bash <(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/williamcanin/shred-extension-rs/main/install.sh)

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🛠 Manual Compilation

To build from source, ensure you have rustup and pkg-config installed.

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/williamcanin/shred-extension-rs.git
   cd shred-extension-rs

2. Build for your file manager:

   • Nautilus:

     cargo build -p shred-nautilus --release
     sudo cp target/release/libshred_nautilus.so /usr/lib/nautilus/extensions-4/libshred_extension_rs.so
     nautilus -q

   • Thunar:

     cargo build -p shred-thunar --release
     sudo cp target/release/libshred_thunar.so /usr/lib/thunarx-3/libshred_extension_rs.so
     thunar -q

Tip

Each extension depends on the shred-common internal crate, ensuring that shared logic (like the shredding algorithm) remains consistent across all platforms while keeping the final binaries lightweight.

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🧑‍💻 Motivation & Backend Architecture

If you are interested in Software Engineering, C‑FFI integration, and how we worked around Rust library limitations that block the GTK main thread, check out ARCHITECTURE.md for implementation details.

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Usage Warning: The overwrite process runs in 3 stages followed by zero‑filling. This tool performs high‑security deletion and the process is irreversible. Make sure you know exactly what you are clicking.