Slowly delete a file by truncating it by a small amount every half second until the file is eventually deleted

fade.sh

#!/bin/bash
#
# DESCRIPTION
# Slowly delete a file by truncating it by a small amount every half second
# until the file is eventually deleted.  This should prevent the system from
# freaking out when attempting to delete a single, large file.
# 
# USAGE
# fade.sh <file>
#
export TRUNCATE_AMOUNT=10485760  # 10 MB

export FILE=$1
export FILESIZE=$(stat -c%s "$FILE")

while [ $FILESIZE -gt $TRUNCATE_AMOUNT ]; do
   perl -e 'truncate($ENV{'FILE'}, $ENV{'FILESIZE'}-$ENV{'TRUNCATE_AMOUNT'})'
   sleep 0.5
   export FILESIZE=$(stat -c%s "$FILE")
done

rm $FILE