GNU bug report logs - #394
wdired-change-to-wdired-mode can cause file deletion

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Package: emacs;

Reported by: xah lee <xah <at> xahlee.org>

Date: Thu, 12 Jun 2008 08:45:03 UTC

Severity: normal

Done: Stefan Monnier <monnier <at> iro.umontreal.ca>

Bug is archived. No further changes may be made.

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From: help-debbugs <at> gnu.org (Emacs bug Tracking System)
To: Stefan Monnier <monnier <at> iro.umontreal.ca>
Subject: bug#394: marked as done (wdired-change-to-wdired-mode can cause 
 file deletion)
[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]
Your message dated Sat, 14 Jun 2008 13:01:52 -0400
with message-id <jwv63scdk9t.fsf-monnier+emacsbugreports <at> gnu.org>
and subject line Re: bug#394: wdired-change-to-wdired-mode can cause file deletion
has caused the Emacs bug report #394,
regarding wdired-change-to-wdired-mode can cause file deletion
to be marked as done.

This means that you claim that the problem has been dealt with.
If this is not the case it is now your responsibility to reopen the
bug report if necessary, and/or fix the problem forthwith.

(NB: If you are a system administrator and have no idea what this
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immediately.)


-- 
394: http://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=394
Emacs Bug Tracking System
Contact help-debbugs <at> gnu.org with problems
[Message part 2 (message/rfc822, inline)]
From: xah lee <xah <at> xahlee.org>
To: bug-gnu-emacs <at> gnu.org
Subject: wdired-change-to-wdired-mode can cause file deletion
Date: Thu, 12 Jun 2008 01:39:07 -0700
In dired, do M-x wdired-change-to-wdired-mode.

Then, swap 2 files's names.

Emacs will ask if the first file should be overwritten. If answer  
yes, it'll be deleted, and it wont be renamed. i.e. you lose a file.

This can be reproduced if you created 2 files, one named A and other  
B. Then renamed them to B and A. (Possibly you will need to create 3  
files and rename in particular cycle depending on how emacs choose  
the order to rename... The key is to get emacs to prompte for the  
overwrite of a file that should be renamed to something else later.)

This behavior is slightly unexpected and caused me to retrieve from  
my backup disk. (the files are images and never edited, so it isn't  
in emacs's backup)

  Xah
∑ http://xahlee.org/
[Message part 3 (message/rfc822, inline)]
From: Stefan Monnier <monnier <at> iro.umontreal.ca>
To: 394-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#394: wdired-change-to-wdired-mode can cause file deletion
Date: Sat, 14 Jun 2008 13:01:52 -0400
> In dired, do M-x wdired-change-to-wdired-mode.
> Then, swap 2 files's names.
> Emacs will ask if the first file should be overwritten. If answer yes, it'll
> be deleted, and it wont be renamed. i.e. you lose a file.

Indeed, dired's rename is a "parallel" rename, whereas our underlying
C primitives only offer sequential renaming, so we need to de more work
to handle those cases.

I've installed a patch into the CVS trunk which should fix it (or at
least catch the problem before it's too late).


        Stefan


This bug report was last modified 17 years and 1 day ago.

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