Re: Trash and hidden files

[Loban Amaan Rahman <loban enigma caltech edu>]

> But there's room for modification here: maybe each user gets a private
> directory underneath the trash folder.  In fact, I think I like that
> even better, especially if it's optional.  On multiuser systems, it's a
> good security feature.  On single user systems, or systems where the
> users all trust each other, the feature can be turned off.
> 
> Or, maybe the trash folder maintains a duplicate of the main filesystem:
> if I delete /home/tangent/docs/foobie.txt, it might be stored as
> /.gnome-trash/home/tangent/docs/foobie.txt, with all the original
> permissions along the path.  That's more work, but just as secure as the
> original file was.

I think the last idea is the best of all. Many good things seem possible
from it. It's okay security-wise, because the trashed filesystem will 
have the same permissions as the original. If a user recursively trashes
directories, they can be restored perfectly. (Also, if a user wants to
restore a recursively trashed directory into a path different from the
original, it can be implemented without too much trouble). Plus, because
each filesystem has it's own trashfolder, trashing a file consists of
little more than just "moving" the files into the trash-folder, creating
the directory structure as need -- a pretty fast operation because no
files are traveling across filesystems. 

I'd like to add one thing - this applies both to regular deleting and
trashing. When recursively trashing directories (using rm -R and gmc),
symlinks are by default deleted but the stuff they point to are not
touched. GMC and/or it's successor should have an option (in it's
preferences) on what to do when it encounters a symlink on deleting/
trashing/moving/copying:
	(1) Just copy the symlink (what happens if it's a relative
		symlink that refers to something not touched)
	(2) Enter into the referred path and continue deleting/trashing/
		etc.
	(3) Prompt for a user choice.


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