Re: dired mode recursive delete

[Stephen Leake <stephen_leake@member.fsf.org>]

David Kastrup <dak@gnu.org> writes:

> Kevin Rodgers <kevin.d.rodgers@gmail.com> writes:
>
>> David Kastrup wrote:
>>> Kevin Rodgers <kevin.d.rodgers@gmail.com> writes:
>>>
>>>> Richard Stallman wrote:
>>>>>     Setting it to t instead will not cause _any_ action without asking for
>>>>>     individual confirmation for every non-empty directory.  It seems like
>>>>>     quite a safe setting (whereas the original setting is not helpful in
>>>>>     any situation I can think of).
>>>>>
>>>>>     My personal setting is 'top which is certainly more convenient than t
>>>>>     but might be considered too drastic as a default setting by some.
>>>>>
>>>>> I think that `top' would be an ok default.
>>>>> Let's change the default in the trunk.
>>>> I'm uneasy about `top' vs. t as the default: when I'm prompted
>>>> "Recursive delete of SUBDIR? ", I expect that if I answer "yes"
>>>> that I'll be prompted for SUBDIR's subdirectories as well.
>>>
>>> That is not taking issue with the default but rather with the prompt.
>>> What kind of prompt would make you expect the right thing?
>>
>> Recursive delete of SUBDIR (unconditionally)?
>> Recursive delete of SUBDIR (without confirmation)?
>
> How about like
>
> Completely delete SUBDIR?
>
> I think it would be clear enough that this would ask no further
> (=recursive) questions and include subdirectories.  It has the
> advantage of being less verbose, leaving more space for the directory
> name.

One approach to this that other systems use is to provide response
buttons that are "yes" and "yes to all".

In Emacs, that would typically be "y" and "!".

Then the question could just be 

Delete SUBDIR (y, n, !)?

-- 
-- Stephe