It’s handy to print things to Preview - maybe you want to save the “security” questions and (random) answers from a new site registration, to a secure place (like 1Password) and now you’re wondering where that temporary file is - with that sensitive info.

So; fire up a terminal:

find $TMPDIR -type f -mmin -1440 -iname \*.pdf\* -print0 | xargs -0 -L1 -t -I% mv -i % ~/.Trash/; open ~/.Trash/

Notes:

  • start find with these options / arguments:
    • in $TMPDIR - your own user’s dir for temporary files
      • (which will automatically get cleaned up - eventually)
    • -type f - we want to find files only
    • -mmin -1440 - files modified in the last 1440 minutes (1 day); tweak as you like
    • -iname \*.pdf\* - files of with an extension of pdf*
    • -print0 - output results null-terminated (to handle “special” chars)
  • | - pipe results to xargs, to process them using these options:
    • -0 - handle null-terminated input
    • -L1 - process one item at a time (if any)
    • -t - show commands as they’re executed
    • -I% - in the ensuing command, replace % there, with the resulting filename/s
  • mv - move these files, with the following options:
    • -i - interactive prompt (instead of overwrite)
    • % - the source filename, substituted by xargs
    • ~/.Trash/ - destination dir; put them here
  • open ~/.Trash/ - open (in Finder), for your review