[Gllug] 'safe' deletion of files

[Bernard Peek]

In message <16667.37988.832114.766964 at chiark.greenend.org.uk>, David 
Damerell <damerell at chiark.greenend.org.uk> writes
>On Thursday, 12 Aug 2004, Bernard Peek wrote:
>>I suspect that people moving from Windows to Linux will soon come to
>>expect this feature. I think that's an argument for using the "del"
>>command for safe deletions.
>
>Yes, you're quite right; if we are to have a "thing that removes files
>that isn't 'rm'", 'del' isn't a bad name - and if 'del' has become
>"safe deletion" in the Windows world, the "people get used to safe
>deletion" argument doesn't apply.
>
>Ultimately I hope that snapshotting filesystems will become
>ubiquitous.  Of course, they _do_ also have the disadvantage that they
>train users to be careless, but I think the advantages are so
>compelling that they outweight that factor.

I came into IT from the user side, so I'm a good deal more sympathetic 
with their requirements than most. I'm all for a system that copes with 
careless users. If you have 10,000 users it's unrealistic to expect all 
of them to be careful all of the time. Systems should be resilient 
enough to cope with the sort of accidents users have. Deleting the wrong 
file is one of the commonest. I haven't yet had anyone delete that 
annoying ".." file though.

Putting my management hat on for a while I have to say that a lot of 
organisations are having to cope with the type of regulatory control 
that I've seen previously in pharmaceuticals and avionics. This could 
have two consequences.

The first is that sysadmins may be required by law to build resilient 
systems and if that requires snapshots then they become mandatory too.

The second is a bit more worrying in that if a system is regulated and 
required to be resilient then the use of unsafe deletion  may be 
forbidden.



-- 
Bernard Peek
London, UK. DBA, Manager, Trainer & Author. Will work for money.

-- 
Gllug mailing list  -  Gllug at gllug.org.uk
http://lists.gllug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/gllug