Subject: bug#9361: 24.0.50; default value of `dired-do-chmod'

From: "Drew Adams" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 11 Sep 2011 08:00:58 -0700

> I agree, so I'm closing this report.

I disagree, so I'm reopening it.

In the _very_ long thread cited by Juri, there was only one comment on this
proposal for a default value for `dired-do-chmod' etc. It was from RMS:

 "I am not sure that this is very useful.  What are the values
  you think of providing?"

There was no followup, and this was never approved.

Juri makes the argument that this is handy because it lets you easily copy the
permissions from "the marked file" and reuse them elsewhere.

That is no argument when more than one file is marked.  In fact it might be an
argument for using as default the file of the current (cursor) line.  It makes
absolutely no sense to privilege the first of a non-singleton set of marked
files.

In reality, it is an argument for having a separate command to copy the settings
(all of them) from the current line and then having, as default value for each
of the `*ch*' commands, the value taken from that copied setting.  And this
would apply across Dired buffers, giving you an easy way to apply a particular
set of values (settings).  It could perhaps also apply to other Dired commands,
such as `touch' (dunno).

The point is that if we are going to copy settings from a particular file in
order to make them available for, essentially, pasting operations to other
files, then the target file being copied from should be clear.  The copy
operation should be an explicit user choice, not something implicit, based only
on the first marked file (why not the last? or the 23rd?).