can't delete symlinks if point to non empty dir

can't delete symlinks if point to non empty dir

[Dan Jacobson]

Gentlemen,
  delete-file is an interactive built-in function.
  (delete-file FILENAME)
  Delete file named FILENAME.  If it is a symlink, remove the symlink.
Well bad news. If it is a symlink to a non-empty directory, then I'm
afraid the user will have to call in real rm(1).
Already we see that "If it is a symlink, remove the symlink." doesn't
describe what is really happening: certainly wrongly checking
first about other things than being a symlink, as seen by the
Lisp error: (file-error "Removing old name: is a directory" "/tmp/w/etc")

Go ahead,
ls -s some_non_empty_directory target, e.g., "ln -s /etc ."
Now try dired-flag-file-deletion, dired-do-flagged-delete (d,x) on it.
emacs-version"21.4.1"

P.S.,(describe-function (quote car))
  car is a built-in function.
  (car LIST)
  Return the car of LIST.  If arg is nil, return nil.
  Error if arg is not nil and not a cons cell.  See also `car-safe'.

What a perfect place to say what "car" means, instead of the snide
recursive definition. Yes, there also is a lisp manual, still...

Re: can't delete symlinks if point to non empty dir

[Kevin Rodgers]

Dan Jacobson wrote:
 > Gentlemen,
 >   delete-file is an interactive built-in function.
 >   (delete-file FILENAME)
 >   Delete file named FILENAME.  If it is a symlink, remove the symlink.
 > Well bad news. If it is a symlink to a non-empty directory, then I'm
 > afraid the user will have to call in real rm(1).
 > Already we see that "If it is a symlink, remove the symlink." doesn't
 > describe what is really happening: certainly wrongly checking
 > first about other things than being a symlink, as seen by the
 > Lisp error: (file-error "Removing old name: is a directory" "/tmp/w/etc")
 >
 > Go ahead,
 > ls -s some_non_empty_directory target, e.g., "ln -s /etc ."
 > Now try dired-flag-file-deletion, dired-do-flagged-delete (d,x) on it.
 > emacs-version"21.4.1"

Confirmed, in
GNU Emacs 21.4.1 (i386-pc-solaris2.8, X toolkit, Xaw3d scroll bars) of 
2005-09-21 on daedal

dired-delete-file correctly determines that /tmp/etc is a symbolic link
to /etc, so it calls delete-file.  But delete-file apparently gets
confused and signals the error because /etc is a directory.

 > P.S.,(describe-function (quote car))
 >   car is a built-in function.
 >   (car LIST)
 >   Return the car of LIST.  If arg is nil, return nil.
 >   Error if arg is not nil and not a cons cell.  See also `car-safe'.
 >
 > What a perfect place to say what "car" means, instead of the snide
 > recursive definition. Yes, there also is a lisp manual, still...

There was a lengthy discussion about this recently, and if I remember
correctly it was decided to leave it mostly alone.

-- 
Kevin Rodgers