williamvenner / blackhole

🌌 A semi-temporary directory for Windows & macOS

Blackhole

Blackhole is a simple program that creates a folder in your computer's home directory where files may not return.

Every time you start your computer/log into your user account, if contents are present, the Blackhole directory is moved to your computer's Recycle Bin/Trash, where you can restore it if needed.

Use Cases

• Temporary downloads
• Temporary torrents
• Temporary extractions of specific files in archives (.zip, .tar, .rar, etc)
• Temporary storage for files waiting to be uploaded elsewhere, e.g. via FTP
• Temporary downloads of files from instant messaging
• A recoverable/very large/non-volatile (but slower) ramdisk
• A glorified temp folder/recycle bin

And much more...

Releases

Click here for pre-built binaries.

Windows

• Blackhole will automatically add itself to your startup programs via the registry.
• The BLACKHOLE directory will be moved to the Recycle Bin every time you login, if contents are present.
• The BLACKHOLE directory will automatically be added to the Quick Access locations.

File Location

%USERPROFILE%/BLACKHOLE

macOS

• Blackhole will automatically add itself to your login items when you first run the program.
• The BLACKHOLE directory will be moved to the Trash every time you login, if contents are present.
• The BLACKHOLE directory will automatically be added to the Finder sidebar.

File Location

$HOME/BLACKHOLE

Screenshots

Credits

Icon made by Flat Icons from www.flaticon.com

blackhole's Issues

Windows error on startup

[Linux] Purge on startup using systemd if installed

There are a bunch of ways to run things at login on Linux. In KDE and Gnome, you can configure these items from the system settings GUI. On anything with systemd, you can set up a service (quite a bit like you've done for macOS with launchd), and of course, you could just use a regular shell script.

https://www.reddit.com/r/software/comments/lrsehh/blackhole_a_semi_temporary_directory_for_windows/goq9g8n/

Settings panel

A dedicated GUI program for configuring the Blackhole.

Possible settings:

• Purge interval
• Blackhole director(ies) location
• File type blacklist/whitelist

https://www.areweguiyet.com/

Optimize this

blackhole/src/blackhole.rs

Lines 55 to 60 in a3566be

	let found_file = self.path.read_dir()?.into_iter().filter(
	|entry| !entry.is_err() &&
	!EMPTY_DIR_FILTER.contains(
	entry.as_ref().unwrap().file_name().to_str().unwrap_or_default()
	)
	).next();

Error upon startup

When the user logs in and startup applications begin to start the following error popups for Blackhole.

[Windows] Make quick access not forced via msi option

Injecting things into a user's Quick Access or Favorites is bad practice. You could offer (once), but you should not do this forcefully, especially at every login.

https://www.reddit.com/r/software/comments/lrsehh/blackhole_a_semi_temporary_directory_for_windows/goq9g8n/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

Send to Blackhole issues

When I click "Blackhole" in the Context menu, I get an error . I have tried with different file types, but still get a same error. However, I can open these files just fine, so I do believe it may be Blackhole's issue.

For Context, I am on Windows 11 so it may be an incompatibility there.

Final small note, I think it would be better to name the action "Send to Blackhole" to be more clear

[Windows 11] Folder does not pin to quick access

On Windows 11, the folder does not automatically pin to Quick Access once it's been re-created.

Recycle Bin issue

I am unsure if these errors relate to Windows 11 as I didnt get these on Window 10. Anyway, when you click "Blackbin" on the recycle bin it pops up with this error.

Remove $ from folder name to prevent confusion with variable interpolation

You shouldn't name directories on macOS/Linux with $NAME, because $ is used to prefix environment variables. So if the directory is ever accessed without quotes it will fail because the shell or script environment will treat it as an undefined variable. It would also just look much cleaner (regardless of platform) to have the directory called Blackhole (without the $). If you're by chance worried about the user thinking it's a 'normal' folder, you could badge the folder icon, add your own, etc (which it looks like you might already be doing).

https://www.reddit.com/r/software/comments/lrsehh/blackhole_a_semi_temporary_directory_for_windows/goq9g8n/

~/Library/LaunchDevices doesn't exist by default on macOS

Need a std::fs::create_dir_all call here

blackhole/src/macos.rs

Line 48 in d770e83

match fs::write(plist_path, embedded_plist.replacen("$BLACKHOLE_EXE_PATH", &exe_path, 1)) {

Add "Move to Blackhole" right click option in Windows