bug#52507: [PATCH] Option for vc-delete-file to keep file on disk

[Dmitry Gutov]

On 16.12.2021 14:26, Ashwin Kafle wrote:
> Dmitry Gutov <dgutov@yandex.ru> writes:
>
> > On 16.12.2021 10:12, Ashwin Kafle wrote:
> > > But this would mean that every vc-backend will have to be changed,
> > > immediately.
> >
> > Not really: since the arg is optional, we can make sure to only add it
> > when it's non-nil, and otherwise call the backends with 1 argument.
>
> But then the user will get error about wrong number of arguments if the
> backend doesn't support it.

That's better than having the file deleted, I think.

And our implementation can catch this particular error and show a more 
humane message, too.

> > > Also, having every vc-backend accept and check keep-on-disk will result
> > > on a lot of duplicate code that can simply be avoided.
> >
> > That's a valid argument, I suppose. Depends on whether many other
> > backends (VCSes) know how to delete files without deleting them on
> > disk.
> >
> > OTOH, it would be handy to let those that don't declare explicitly
> > their inability to do that (by not supporting the second argument).
>
> I think it would be better to check if the file exists after calling vc
> backends.  If it doesn't and keep-files is non-nil, we can restore from the
> backup(which is always happening).

Couldn't backups be disabled?