GNU bug report logs - #11912
24.1; 'M' in Dired on a symlink does not refresh the display

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From: Lars Ingebrigtsen <larsi <at> gnus.org>
To: Richard Stallman <rms <at> gnu.org>
Cc: mvar.40k <at> gmail.com, 11912 <at> debbugs.gnu.org, eggert <at> cs.ucla.edu
Subject: bug#11912: 24.1; 'M' in Dired on a symlink does not refresh the display
Date: Thu, 26 Aug 2021 15:54:36 +0200

Richard Stallman <rms <at> gnu.org> writes:

> I wouldn't assume that a user who uses M on a symlink in Dired wants
> to alter the file it points to.  I think it is more likely that the
> user did not realize it might do that.  Suppose you operate on 10
> files and one is a symlink -- you might not even have noticed that one
> is as symlink.

Yes, that's a good point.  It's always ambiguous what the user really
wants to do when doing operations on symlinks, and making Dired always
"edit what's actually in the buffer" (i.e., the symlink itself) makes it
less ambiguous (even if it might surprise people who expected Posix
semantics).

-- 
(domestic pets only, the antidote for overdose, milk.)
   bloggy blog: http://lars.ingebrigtsen.no

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