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From: joel@pyr.gatech.EDU (Joel Rives)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: removing and unremoving files
Message-ID: <3841@pyr.gatech.EDU>
Date: Thu, 23-Jul-87 11:25:05 EDT
Article-I.D.: pyr.3841
Posted: Thu Jul 23 11:25:05 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 25-Jul-87 08:06:48 EDT
References: <8414@brl-adm.ARPA>
Reply-To: joel@pyr.UUCP (Joel Rives)
Organization: Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta
Lines: 25


Certainly, examples can be given where a user wishes to unremove a file
which was removed a day or two ago. I think, however, that such instances
may be rare. Perhaps this isn't the case (I certainly haven't done any sort
of extensive research into the matter) but from personal experience, it seems
that most users will know almost immediately whether they have removed a
file that they shouldn't have. To cover a much larger percentage of such cases,
I would suggest that a large majority of users will know for certain that
they want to undelete a file before they finish their current session.
Assuming that this is the case, it becomes a relatively trivial matter to
have the rm command simply mv the file to a system trash directory. When
the user logs out, the system can actually remove those files owned by the
user that are in the trash directory. A specific command could be written
to show a user his or her trash files at any given time. The unrm command
could then simply mv the specified file from the trash directory into 
the current directory. If you wanted to add a failsafe to the system, you
could have the logout sequence prompt the user before actual removal of
each file in the trash directory.


-- 
		The thief
		  Left it behind--
		    The moon at the window.
						-Ryokan