Re: Dired delete(d) the wrong file!

[Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org>]

> From: Dave Goel <deego3@gmail.com>
> Date: Fri, 5 Jul 2024 04:39:29 -0400
> Cc: luangruo@yahoo.com, emacs-devel@gnu.org
> 
>  > Eli's patch works!
> 
> I still don't understand one thing -
> 
> The problem is now fixed, right? 

Yes, I think so.

> It appears that it's still using a very hacky regexp - see (defvar directory-listing-before-filename-regexp...)
> during file deletion.
> which does all kinds of hacky checks, guessing where the timestring ends and where the filename begins.
> 
> (A) So, is this still a hack? 
> (B) Is the problem fixed for good, or can one still concoct edge cases?
> (C) If it is fixed, then why does that regex need this massive hack?

That regexp is the best heuristic we could come up with that caters to
the various formats of date and time that the various versions of 'ls'
out there produce.  It is true that the regexp can be tricked into
mistakes, but we could not find a better solution that supports all
the valid use cases.  We use the --dired option of 'ls' when available
precisely for this reason: to allow Dired to determine the file names
reliably.  If --dired is not supported, then there will be problems
with certain file names, yes.  That is a known limitation, so users
are encouraged to install GNU Coreutils (which is where GNU 'ls' comes
from) to make Dired immune to those problems.