Where does the Trash can go?

[Infrared]

In my home folder there's a directory '.Trash'. If I delete
stuff, it goes in there. That seems straightforward enough.

But... when I log out the directory vanishes. If I go to the
folder as root, say, and type 'ls -a' (the '-a' isn't necessary
as root, but let's put it in there to be double-sure), it isn't
there (or seen to be there). So, where does it go?

Cheers.

 

[Infrared]

In my home folder there's a directory '.Trash'. If I delete
stuff, it goes in there. That seems straightforward enough.

But... when I log out the directory vanishes. If I go to the
folder as root, say, and type 'ls -a' (the '-a' isn't necessary
as root, but let's put it in there to be double-sure), it isn't
there (or seen to be there). So, where does it go?

Ok, it looks like the '.Trash' directory only disappears if it's
empty when I log out. I'm assuming the OS does that and
recreates it when I log in again. Seems a bit odd, but that's
how it looks to me. Unless, that is, it's some sort of special
directory - that is, not a normal unix file.