[Geany-devel] Overwriting a link on save as

[Colomban Wendling]

Le 03/03/2011 00:08, Enrico Tröger a écrit :
> On Wed, 2 Mar 2011 12:50:27 +1100, Lex wrote:
> 
> Hey,
> 
> 
>>> It probably depends on whether we can assume or not that if we
>>> successfully removed the original file we'll be able to create the
>>> new one.
>>>
>>> Again, thoughts?
>>
>>
>> g_file_set_contents is documented as behaving the way we want with
>> respect to links so that sounds a good way to go instead of deleting
>> the old file and hoping we can create the new one.  Of course on
>> Windows g_file_set_contents has its own set of problems, so
>> technically we should do something else when writing to a windows file
>> (eg via samba) but I don't know how you tell so ignore for now?
> 
> I'm not sure whether this whole problem is a bug or feature :D.
> As Dimitar said, it's rather a feature (or better: just expected
> behaviour), on the other hand, I can imagine that behaviour could be
> quite surprising.
> 
> I tend to fail in guessing most users' preference, so I won't try it
> this time :D.
I personally feel it surprising in the first place, but it's probably
because I see the "save as" action as "replace the file" and not as
"replace the *content* of the file"... but let's be honest: I personally
don't mind and simply felt it more natural. But if there is no clear
consensus maybe the better is to decide it's a feature and tell the
(few) complaining users.

> Quick weird idea:
> we could add an option in the Save As dialog which is only enabled or
> even shown (though enabling/disabling should be preferred) when a
> target file is selected which is a symlink according to the result of
> g_file_test(filename, G_FILE_TEST_IS_SYMLINK)).
> This option is enabled/disabled according to the currently selected
> file which could be updated by connecting to the "selection-changed"
> signal of the GtkFileChooserDialog.
> 
> Or, less intrusively, when the user chose a filename and finally click
> "OK", we check whether the target file is a symlink and ask the user
> what to do, maybe with a "remember my choice" checkbox.
> 
> As I said, just a quick idea, not sure whether it'd be worth the
> efforts.
The main problem (apart the work needed :D) I see is that AFAIK it's not
trivial to see whether a file is a hard link in a portable manner. And
as Lex pointed out, a hard link has the same issues.
And I this maybe a little overkill for such a "small" (and I guess not
that common) problem.

> Oh, yeah, as Lex said, we need to think about Windows. Maybe
> G_FILE_TEST_IS_SYMLINK is always false on Windows as there are no real
> symlinks, at least not like on Unix-like systems. I don't know off-hand
> whether GLib considers Windows' shortcuts as symlinks as well. If not,
> it'd be easy. In anyway, this is easy to test on a Windows system.
> 
> Completely no idea about Samba. Maybe G_FILE_TEST_IS_SYMLINK returns
> false in this case as well, always. Need to be tested I guess.
The GLib docs says that the IS_SYMLINK test always returns FALSE on
Windows, so it'd not be handled... an argument for telling it's a
feature, right? ^^

> Just my 2cents.
My owns, back. Our counts are clear! :D

Regards,
Colomban