GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 149966
never asks before moving files to the trash
Last modified: 2009-08-15 18:40:50 UTC
I have on several occations accidentally moved files to the trash while renaming some files by pressing [delete] at the wrong time. I hereby request the following feature for 2.4.2 and all future versions of Nautilus. description: enable some preference, select a file, press delete expected behaviour: click [cancel] to keep the file or [ok] to move the file to the trash actual behaviour: the file if moved to the trash version used: Mandrake 10, Nautilus 2.4.2
Actually, nautilus is supposed to ask you if you want to delete those files... If you look into File Management preferences, there is a "Ask before emptying the trash or deleting files" in the "Behavior" tab. However, as you reported, this option does not seem to work : I just tried to delete a file on my desktop and no confirmation was asked. So this option is broken. I'm upping the priority (it's not an enhancement but a broken feature).
The description of the property reads "empty trash or delete file" and strictly the operation is "moving to trash". However, the name of the setting is "confirm_trash" which kind of leans towards your interpretations. I'm happy with a high priority though. :-)
For me the never asking is a feature. Why warn when something can be undone? It does warn when emptying the trash/really deleting a file, so I don't see what the problem is.
I want a warning as I accidentally and unknowingly press [delete] at the wrong time and therefore don't know that I need to undo. BTW: How do I undo?
Olav : the problem is that nautilus makes you think it will ask your confirmation (as the option clearly suggests). Either nautilus should follow the requested behavior (and you can always turn it off if you like) or the option should be reworded (to something like "Ask before emptying the trash" only). Frankly this has never bothered me before ;-) but it does not feel very consistent. Roger : you can undo by dragging the files out of the trash to their initial folders ;)
After posting I saw that the undo does not work (bug 41850, bug 41852). Shows how often I need to undo a move-to-trash ;) My reason for posting is that I want the fix to be something other than adding a confirmation dialog. Suggest the preference to be named "Ask before emptying the trash or permanently deleting files". For me the current behavior (not the description/setting/..) is consistent as the warning only appears when the file will really be gone. On some other OS you have move-to-trash messages. Turn then off and you discover it will automatically (without confirming) remove stuff from the 'trash' when diskspace is low. :(
Vincent: the key says 'confirm when emptying trash or /deleting/', not 'emptying or moving to trash', and that works here, both on trash empty and /delete/. This is NOTABUG. As Olav says, trash is a reversible operation, that's the whole point of trash not being the same as deleting.
Just for the record. I never reported a bug. I requested a feature. Do re-read my first post. It is still valid. Do you mean this feature request is turned down?
> Do you mean this feature request is turned down? Yes. Popping up a dialog to ask if you want to perform a reversible operation is silly- it defeats the whole point of making it reversible.
You point makes sence in Windows, where I can easily press CTRL-Z and get the file back. In the case I describe above, I might not even know which file I deleted and so I'm lost in the bowels of the trash-folder. However, it's your call. I wont press this further.
*** Bug 329335 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***