[tahoe-dev] #1104: the button to unlink a child from a directory should not be labelled "del"

[James A. Donald]

James A. Donald:
>> The file systems that people are accustomed to using, treat and display
>> an owning link, where unlinking realy does delete, differently from an
>> non owning link - and the vast majority of links, the normal case, are
>> owning links, which form a true tree, and can be subjected to tree
>> manipulations.

On 2010-07-05 5:26 AM, David-Sarah Hopwood wrote:
> You're missing the point of the ticket.
>
> The Tahoe unlink operation does not delete. It can't, partly because it
> doesn't know whether the unlinked child is referenced from elsewhere, and
> partly because a write cap to the directory from which the entry is being
> unlinked does not (and should not) grant the authority to delete the
> referenced object.

The referenced object should have metadata identifying one, and only 
one, referencing object that has authority to delete it.  Such a 
reference, a reference that has delete authority, a reference that has a 
back pointer pointing to it, should be described and displayed 
differently to an object that lacks that authority - that being how 
everyone else handles this problem.