Subject: Re: bug#59986: 30.0.50; Can't trash file with broken symbolic link

From: Eli Zaretskii <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 15 Dec 2022 18:07:45 +0200

> Date: Thu, 15 Dec 2022 17:54:32 +0300
> From: Jean Louis <[email-masked]>
> Cc: Michael Heerdegen <[email-masked]>, [email-masked],
>   [email-masked]
> 
> If there is dangling symlink in Trash then even if the file to be
> deleted to Trash exists and is not symlink, I get the same error
> message:

Can you try the patch below and see if it solves the problem?

diff --git a/lisp/files.el b/lisp/files.el
index d785d4f..c74e7e8 100644
--- a/lisp/files.el
+++ b/lisp/files.el
@@ -8467,6 +8467,14 @@ trash--hexify-table
 
 (declare-function system-move-file-to-trash "w32fns.c" (filename))
 
+(defun file-exists-in-trash-p (filename)
+  "Return non-nil if FILENAME exists in the trash.
+
+This is like `file-exists-p', but it also returns non-nil
+if FILENAME is a dangling symlink, to allow trashing such files."
+  (or (file-exists-p filename)
+      (file-symlink-p filename)))
+
 (defun move-file-to-trash (filename)
   "Move the file (or directory) named FILENAME to the trash.
 When `delete-by-moving-to-trash' is non-nil, this function is
@@ -8497,7 +8505,7 @@ move-file-to-trash
 	   (unless (file-directory-p trash-dir)
 	     (make-directory trash-dir t))
 	   ;; Ensure that the trashed file-name is unique.
-	   (if (file-exists-p new-fn)
+	   (if (file-exists-in-trash-p new-fn)
 	       (let ((version-control t)
 		     (backup-directory-alist nil))
 		 (setq new-fn (car (find-backup-file-name new-fn)))))
@@ -8574,7 +8582,7 @@ move-file-to-trash
                  ;; We're checking further down whether the info file
                  ;; exists, but the file name may exist in the trash
                  ;; directory even if there is no info file for it.
-                 (when (file-exists-p
+                 (when (file-exists-in-trash-p
                         (file-name-concat trash-files-dir files-base))
                    (setq overwrite t
                          files-base (file-name-nondirectory
@@ -8612,7 +8620,7 @@ move-file-to-trash
 		 (let ((delete-by-moving-to-trash nil)
 		       (new-fn (file-name-concat trash-files-dir files-base)))
                    (if (or (not is-directory)
-                           (not (file-exists-p new-fn)))
+                           (not (file-exists-in-trash-p new-fn)))
                        (rename-file fn new-fn overwrite)
                      (copy-directory fn
                                      (file-name-as-directory new-fn)