Thanks for your bug report!
We're requesting confirmation when directlty deleting items, or removing them
from trash, which is not recoverable. However, when moving files to the trash we
don't seem to ask, which is the action that's taken when you press delete. So
are you requesting that we ask the user before moving items to the trash? How
did you get Nautilus to immediately delete when pressing the delete key?
shift-delete (the instant delete keybinding) always seems to bring up a
confirmation dialog.

Thanks for getting back to me so fast.

I experimented with Nautilus some more, and it looks like it's behaving as you
describe.  I just hadn't expected it to move the files to the Trash when the
Delete key was pressed - it seemed more natural that they would be deleted, and
I assumed that was what was happening.  My mistake, sorry!

Hmm.  Pressing Delete to delete makes more intuitive sense than pressing Delete
to move to Trash.

Perhaps it would be better if pressing the Delete key would pop up a dialog with
options "Move to Trash", "Delete", and "Cancel".  That would add flexibility and
remove the ambiguity at the expense of forcing the user to make an extra mouse
click.  You could retain Shift+Delete for immediate deletion, and add another
keystroke sequence (maybe Alt+Delete) for immediate move to Trash.

Hrm I disagree with you. The user should be able to press the delete key - which
is a power user feature like keynav in general - without messing aorund with
dialogs all the time. However, accidentally hitting "delete" may have an
undesired impact for unexperienced users if you press it. Do you really use
instant delete that often?

I do tend to use instant-delete a lot.  One of the reasons I was confused about
it and thought it was buggy is that its behavior is inconsistent between the
case of local and remote filesystems (sftp://...): On the local filesystem the
selected file disappears instantly without a confirming dialog and gets moved to
the Trash, whereas with the remote filesystem you do get a dialog and if you
confirm it the file is actually deleted.

Another point: Many small keyboards (on laptops and some mini external ones as
well) put the Delete key just left of the left-arrow.  Since the arrow keys are
also active in Nautilus this makes it fairly easy to hit Delete by mistake.

Finally, Shift+Delete for file deletion in Nautilus is inconsistent with the way
most text editors (gedit, AbiWord, most MS-Windows apps, etc.) work.  In those
apps Shift+Delete does a cut to the clipboard, while Delete by itself does a
hard delete.  Since Nautilus already implements cut and paste via its menus in
an attempt to make file manipulation consistent with text manipulation, it makes
sense to have the keystroke commands consistent as well.

So I propose:

  Delete          Hard delete (with confirmation dialog, Trash option)

  Shift+Delete    If local: Cut to clipboard (moves file to Trash); no dialog
   or Ctrl+X      If remote: Acts like "Cut File" menu option

  Shift+Insert    If local: Paste from clipboard (moves file from Trash); no dialog
   or Ctrl+V      If remote: Acts like "Paste Files" menu option

  Ctrl+Insert     Copy file to clipboard
   or Ctrl+C

  Alt+Delete (?)  Move to Trash (no dialog)    

These changes could be used to make file manipulation more consistent and safer.
 The only downside would be that someone wanting to do deletion via the keyboard
would need to use a key combination rather than a single key.

Perhaps a brief message could appear in the status bar at the bottom of the
Nautilus window when one of these operations is performed, to make clear to the
user exactly what just happened...?  

I don't seem to see a list of keystrokes in the Nautilus documentation, but
maybe I missed it.

Oops, I made a mistake in the proposed list of keystroke actions above.  I
should have said:

Alt+Delete (?)  Hard delete (no dialog)    

Another thing: For the plain Delete key, the Move to Trash option would be
grayed out for remote folders for which there is no clean way to implement the
Trash.  

reopening since described

In nautilus 2.14.1, via gconf editor I've allowed the delete function via right click menu.

Right click - delete, deletes the file, with no confirmation.  Even if I DO have the confirm on move to trash option on.

This is slightly dangerous as well, I'd hate to be going for the trash button but accidentally click on 'delete', and then all is lost

Confirm on move to trash may be a cool feature for some, but to me, move to trash confirm should be optional, delete should come with a manditory confirm dialog.

At least the option to make one, as it stands now I can't find anything in gconf-editor to make that happen...

I would find it immensely annoying to be prompted everytime I deleted a file and the Trash is designed to protect users from accidentally deleting files so prompting them each time should be entirely unnecessary.  

Perhaps a status bar message could be added to say something like "Files moved to Trash" after a delete.    

For consistency with Microsoft Windows Explorer and the behaviour I'm most familiar with from many years of use I'd actually like to see:

Delete          Move to Trash (no dialog) 
Shift+Delete    Delete immediately without moving to trash

(I have a feelign the clipboard shorcuts you mention are a historical leftover from DOS rather than necessarily anything we'd want have Nautilus follow.) 

Also bug 251261 asks for an option in the style of Mac OS as follows:
Ctrl+shift+delete     Empty Trash     

Part of the problem here may be that Nautilus fails to provide an Undo system and once a file is put in the Trash there is no easy way to put it back where it was.  However this is a reason to encourage the Nautilus developers to implement a proper Undo system rather than adding further interruptions.  

I think I agree with Alan.  My original issue is that the file appeared to be deleted without confirmation, though it was actually being moved to the Trash.  Giving an indication of what happened via a statusbar message would have avoided that.

*** Bug 509144 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Hi,

I like to mount a NTFS partition to access the files I work with when I use Windows. But with Nautilus (2.14.3), if I press the delete key, the file or folder is instantly deleted!!! It's not moved to the trash (unless it is invisible some way, but I don't think so). This is extremely dangerous, hitting accidentally the delete key when a folder is selected can lead to very costly losses (need to recover files from last backup...). So, for the moment, I use KDE and Konqueror, which handles things correctly (there is a confirmation dialog + the file is properly moved to the trash). When, for some reason, Nautilus cannot move the file to the trash, it should really ask for a confirmation prior to delete the file.

Hi,
The initial report (in 2005!) said that it happened randomly 75% of the time, but in my case happens always no matter what the flag "Ask before emptying the Trash or deleting files" says.

I disagree with Alan: on Windows deleting a file or moving it to the Trash asks for confirmation. In my opinion there must exist the option to ask the user because it is easy to delete something accidentally and then empty the Trash some days later without noticing that between all the files there is something important. There is many people people switching from Windows to Linux (myself included) and small things like that can make them change their minds. And come on, it cannot be so difficult to make this checkbox work as expected!

Adding the undo feature would be nice but not so important (and probably not so easy to implement) as adding this confirmation dialog. The problem is deleting things without noticing: if you don't notice that you have done something you won't use the Undo function!

If it helps to someone to triage/confirm the bug, I use Nautilus 2.20.0 in Gnome 2.20.1 in Ubuntu 7.10.
This bug is also in https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/nautilus/+bug/95853
You can also ask Google about "nautilus confirm before delete" and you will see that there is many people that has the same problem.

Here with 2.22.0, the "Ask before emptying the Trash or deleting files" checkbox work, i.e. I get a confirmation dialog that warns me that the file I want to delete will be permanently deleted, so I guess this bug has been fixed during the 2.22 development cycle.

@Octavi and others: note that this bug request is about getting a confirmation dialog when *deleting* files and not when *trashing* them. I don't think a confirmation dialog for moving to trash would be convenient, as trashing is an undoable action, though a statusbar message could be cool, but you may file that as a separate enhancement request.

Can someone else try to reproduce the bug with 2.22.0 (Ubuntu Hardy or Fedora 9 should already ship it)? Thanks.

Hi Cosimo,
I think I didn't explain myself. When I said "delete" I should have said "press the delete button of the keyboard" that sends the file to the trash (so I meant "trash"). Sorry for confusing you. I know that this is an undoable action (IF the file system is not NTFS) but my point is that it is easy to press the delete button without noticing, and some days later empty the trash, and some days later notice that you lost something important. In my laptop the "delete" button is on the "home" button and in other keyboards is near the "end" button, so this situation is likely to happen.

This "trashing" opens a confirmation dialog in Windows. In Konqueror (KDE) it asks "Do you really want to move this item to the trash?" and there is a checkbox that says "Do not ask again", so you don't have to see the dialog if you don't want to. I think that Nautilus should be configurable to behave the same way and show a dialog if the user wants.

You suggest that I should file this request separately but Tom Eykens filed a bug/request with the title "'Delete' key deletes selected files immediately (no confirmation dialog)" http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=509144 and YOU marked the request as a duplicate of this bug... Are they the same bug/request or not? The bug filed at Ubuntu is also related to the "trashing" by the delete button and it also points here https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/nautilus/+bug/95853

Hi Octavi,
you're right and I'm wrong :)
All the three requests (bug #509144, bug #125087 and this one) are requesting a confirmation dialog for trashing, or a visual indication that the file has been trashed when pressing delete (comment #9).
Then I'm marking bug #125087 as a duplicate of this one and modify the report fields to be more clear about the request, thanks again for making it clear.

Personally, I think having a confirmation dialog when trashing files is not a good choice (and I don't like the "Do not ask this question the next time" checkbox too, because the user won't know where to look when he wants to turn the dialog on again). I think the best thing to have would be "Undo" support in Nautilus just by Ctrl+Z or Edit->Undo (bug #167501) and maybe having a statusbar message.

*** Bug 125087 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

*** Bug 522512 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

I think an confirmation dialog would be annoying, but a yellow bar under the menubar, indicating what has happened, would be nice.

This bar could also contain an Undo button and a "Real delete" button.

*** Bug 554918 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Created attachment 127405 [details] [review]
The patch for this bug

If "Ask before emptying the Trash or deleting files" is checked in Nautilus preferences it will show a confirmation dialog when trying to trash something. The dialog text needs to be translated, it will default to english.

Marco, thanks for your patch.
Though, I believe we don't want to annoy the user with popups every time he wants to trash something. If that happens by mistake, you can always restore it from the trashbin; in the end, that's what trash is for! (avoid accidental deletions).
As I pointed out in previous comments, I still think the way forward is either a cluebar or having an Undo feature.

This recent discussion on nautilus-list might be interesting as well [1].

[1] http://mail.gnome.org/archives/nautilus-list/2009-March/msg00095.html

Unfortunately, lot of people are ANNOYED by accidentally trashed files, especially when they have to dig somewhere in the Trash because there is still Undo functionality missing. Even worse, they may even not notice they trashed something. I don't think they would write tons of bug reports and comments for this issue just for fun. It's really dangerous and that's also why the confirmation for trash is definitely needed.

Of course this should be an OPTION in Nautilus preferences and the confirmation dialog can contain some "Don't ask again" checkbox. That is the behaviour most of the people expect.

Btw. I would say that the Trash is rather intended for restore of files that the user trashes by purpose, but later on s/he finds out the file is still needed. At least all users coming from Windows think this way.


(In reply to comment #22)
> Marco, thanks for your patch.
> Though, I believe we don't want to annoy the user with popups every time he
> wants to trash something. If that happens by mistake, you can always restore it
> from the trashbin; in the end, that's what trash is for! (avoid accidental
> deletions).
> As I pointed out in previous comments, I still think the way forward is either
> a cluebar or having an Undo feature.
> 
> This recent discussion on nautilus-list might be interesting as well [1].
> 
> [1] http://mail.gnome.org/archives/nautilus-list/2009-March/msg00095.html
> 

(In reply to comment #22)
> Marco, thanks for your patch.
> Though, I believe we don't want to annoy the user with popups every time he
> wants to trash something. If that happens by mistake, you can always restore it
> from the trashbin; in the end, that's what trash is for! (avoid accidental
> deletions).
> As I pointed out in previous comments, I still think the way forward is either
> a cluebar or having an Undo feature.
> 
> This recent discussion on nautilus-list might be interesting as well [1].
> 
> [1] http://mail.gnome.org/archives/nautilus-list/2009-March/msg00095.html

I personally think this should be an option, like many others are saying... however this is up to you (the development team).

The only thing i would like to point out is that a decision must be made. If the dev team is not going to change this behavior and thinks this is the right way to operate, this bug must be closed. Otherwise people will keep waiting for nothing or (like me) even code a patch for the bug.

I want to remember some things:

" (In reply to comment #0)
Synopsis: 'Delete' key deletes selected files immediately (no confirmation dialog)
Bugzilla-Product: nautilus
Description of Problem:
Selecting one or more file icons in Nautilus and hitting the Delete key
causes them to be deleted immediately, even if the "Ask before emptying
the Trash or deleting files' option is turned on in the File Management
Preferences

Expected Results:

Confirmation dialog pops up, and file disappears if the delete operation
is confirmed

How often does this happen?

Probably 75% of the time.  It seems to be sporadic - I haven't noticed
this behavior being associated with anything in particular. "


I worked with several distros with Gnome and I don't know, why is written "Probably happend 75%..." ?

Always happends, 100%.

I think this is not a bug, is just the way of natilus works, but this way sucks.
I'm not S.O programmer, but I think is just a little change neeedit to solvit.

I recently read a comment, that I'm agree with it. There are many people asking for this, so I think we are not going to receibe a solution for this.
If nautilus programmers are thinking this is the right way to deletes (send to trash with no confirmation dialog), nobody can change it. So, we must be resigned to live with this behavior or use KDE o PCmanfm, or something else.

What do you think?

The current behaviour is per design, the trash allows restoring the file if you trashed it by mistake. This is the primary and only reason for it. We don't want to further annoy users with lots of "yes, really do what i told you" dialogs, training them to just click away dialogs.

Yes, its slightly painful to restore a file from trash, but its an uncommon situation, while trashing the correct file is very common and thus the dialog a great cost.

So, disagree if you will, but this is how nautilus works.

Hi Alexander
I'm always reading: "this is Free/Open software, you can personalize it as you want it". Many linux users says, Linux (*ubuntu, mandriva, suse, debian, slackware, etc) are evolving and now are more User Friendly than before, you don't need use the Terminal to use it well, but if you want it there is it.

I feel graceful to free software, especially ubuntu, but i feel frustrated when i can't change a behavior that is very dangerous to me.

You said: "The Current behavior is per design, the trash allows restoring the file if you trashed it by mistake. This is the primary and only reason for it"
I knew it and said that.
Well, this is the primary function, but is just "very Basic function", where is the evolution?
Konqueror (KDE), PCManFM and All windows versions, even DOS and terminal "deletes commands" ask for confirmation. Is nautilus so basic? Is so difficult implement it?
Do you know how many people prefer the confirmation dialog? Try find it.

I not disagree, but disappointing, 'cause i just wont a solution, a script will be fine to change my linux system at least.

Sorry to be so annoying for you, now I know you can't help in this behavior.

My primary objective in this forum was waiting a script for nautilus.
It would be great -if you want- tell us who can do this or where we can study about it to do it ourselves.

P.D. Don't change this bug to RESOLVED, use REJECTED or ABANDONED, is more real.

(In reply to comment #27)
> Konqueror (KDE), PCManFM and All windows versions, even DOS and terminal
> "deletes commands" ask for confirmation. Is nautilus so basic? Is so difficult
> implement it?

DOS and terminal (read /bin/rm) don't ask for confirmation. You may be confusing this with 'rm -i' which sometimes is what rm is aliased to.

I think that at least a gconf key that tells nautilus to ask before deleting should be implemented.

This way users wishing direct delete wouldn't be annoyed, and users wishing confirmation could get this behaviour.

If I understood, a patch has been presented. I think it could be merged, with the gconf key option.

I support and insist on the demand to provide at least a gconf key like confirm_delete to provide a security alert.
Preferable would be an entry in the properties dialog "Confirm on delete".

Secondly "Ask before emptying the Trash or deleting files" should be renamed to something like "Ask before emptying the Trash or irrevocably deleting files" to make it clear.

Why do i need confirm_delete?
I am using nautilus on a client at work. If i accidentally delete a source code file and commit a directory to our version control, it is likely to happen that i delete the file for all other developers.

A last remark:
I will definitely not switch from KDE to GNOME in my private unix environments unless this feature is implemented. This lack of operating safety is an absolutely no-go!

@Hayo: You can demand all you want. I don't think the gnome developers care very much about one person's choice about KDE vs Gnome.

Additionally, if you are using version control you can always revert the file deletion. That's the whole point of having the version control in the first place. And you really ought to review what you are committing before you actually commit.

Created attachment 146578 [details] [review]
Patch to introduce a new option to let user have a confirmation before trashing items

I always considered this a major flaw in nautilus so I wrote a patch to fix it. See attached.

The patch add a new option that allows the user to have a notification when moving files to the trash bin. The option by default is set to FALSE which means that the default behavior is NO DIFFERENT from the one that we have now. People who like current behavior will have nothing to do and keep trashing the stuff the way they are used to. All the others, just check the "Ask before moving to the Trash bin" checkbox.

Created attachment 146673 [details]
Mockup for Action Bar

Lack of a confirmation for a "move to trash" is not necessarily a flaw.

As mentioned in earlier comments , this is how nautilus works. When an user is not prompted for a copy or a paste there is no need for a confirmation for a 'Move to trash'! It is not an irreversible action.

For users saying that they accidentally delete the files and do not realize it. That would be the flaw[not realizing that they have deleted the file]. 
Simply adding a confirmation is a workaround and not solving anything.

A better way would be adding an actions bar , which pops-up for completed actions[move to folder , copying to folder , move to trash , permanent delete].

The bar can be similar to the ribbon used in the trash folder. But located in the lower right corner. 

Adding this actions bar + an "Undo Last Action" from the Edit menu , is more ideal than poping confirmation boxes

The actions bar , can be used even for the fileoperations progressbar can be done within the nautilus browser. The only interaction allowed can be the cancel for large file operations.

So  , instead of what we have right now , where the file operations for the large files pops up a separate window , we will have a actions bar at the lower right which stays with the browser where the file operations is done:
- User can close the window and the operations shouldnt be halted
- When user opens a window containing the file operations the actions bar is also seen.

Attaching a mockup. Not sure if this is something the nautilus devs would like hence i havent opened a new bug for this nor do i know if it is already in the works. 
If the idea sounds sane to the devs, I could file a new feature request bug expanding on this idea in more detail...

(In reply to comment #33)
> Created an attachment (id=146673) [details]
> Mockup for Action Bar
> 
> Lack of a confirmation for a "move to trash" is not necessarily a flaw.
> 
> As mentioned in earlier comments , this is how nautilus works. When an user is
> not prompted for a copy or a paste there is no need for a confirmation for a
> 'Move to trash'! It is not an irreversible action.
> 
> For users saying that they accidentally delete the files and do not realize it.
> That would be the flaw[not realizing that they have deleted the file]. 
> Simply adding a confirmation is a workaround and not solving anything.
> 
> A better way would be adding an actions bar , which pops-up for completed
> actions[move to folder , copying to folder , move to trash , permanent delete].
> 
> The bar can be similar to the ribbon used in the trash folder. But located in
> the lower right corner. 
> 
> Adding this actions bar + an "Undo Last Action" from the Edit menu , is more
> ideal than poping confirmation boxes
> 
> The actions bar , can be used even for the fileoperations progressbar can be
> done within the nautilus browser. The only interaction allowed can be the
> cancel for large file operations.
> 
> So  , instead of what we have right now , where the file operations for the
> large files pops up a separate window , we will have a actions bar at the lower
> right which stays with the browser where the file operations is done:
> - User can close the window and the operations shouldnt be halted
> - When user opens a window containing the file operations the actions bar is
> also seen.
> 
> Attaching a mockup. Not sure if this is something the nautilus devs would like
> hence i havent opened a new bug for this nor do i know if it is already in the
> works. 
> If the idea sounds sane to the devs, I could file a new feature request bug
> expanding on this idea in more detail...

Every nautilus user know how it works. I think this "Bug" is because many people wants a "confirmation dialog box" when hittin "delete" key.
The solution you propose is fine,but is only for "Mouse", where there is no problem.
Every file manager people that uses nautilus, has the same problem. Do you manage many files? Try to do it with the mouse... is not precise and is very slow. The keyborad is more precise and quick.
Please, other and me want a confimation dialod to move to trash, nobody needs to remind us that nautilus works like that, we know it, please, help us to find a solution.
PCManfm works fine, but is very hard for other jobs.
Everybody know that nutilus in slow and not mature, let's make it better.
Do I need to use Dolphin in gnome? or pcmanfm?
I think nautilus programmers can change this behavior so easy, why don't do it?
Many Users need it !!

(In reply to comment #32)

Hi, how can I apply the patch?

mac_v, 

an alert for a confirmation upon delete was suggested originally in 2005.
There's been *a lot* of philosophical discussion since then on what it is the
best way for users to delete files and how Jesus would do it. 

While we keep these interesting discussions open elsewhere, may I suggest to reopen this bug, commit the patch I attached earlier and put the word END for a while? This way, those who oppose this behavior will still be able to keep going the way they are used to, the others will have the option to stop losing files accidentally.

agofay: This is not the place to discuss how to patch, so please if you have other questions write me an email.
The easiest way to patch depends on the distribution you are using. If you are in ubuntu, adapt instructions you find here: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=290219
If you are on ARCHlinux you can get my PKGBUILD from here: http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/52420/nautilus-patch/nautilus-trash-confirm.tar.gz