revDeleteFolder and Lessons Learned..

[Chipp Walters]

Hi Dave,

Well, since I passed revDeleteFolder a single "/" and it tried to delete 
(w/out being able to be interrupted) the *entire* hard disk, I would say 
it's less dangerous to 'roll your own'. I would expect revDeleteFolder 
to take as an argument a valid path, including drive letter. For 
instance I would expect:

revDeleteFolder "C:/"

to delete the C drive. I don't know why just "/" does it and I'm afraid 
to test it with a null, especially since it can't be interrupted. 
Anything you roll on your own can be interrupted with a control-period.

The non-interruptibility of the command is a huge issue, IMO, and one 
I'm not willing to take any more chances on. I haven't looked at the 
code, but as Xavier mentioned, it seems like it should be an engine 
level issue, not a shell call. You are certainly welcome to use it to 
your hearts content-- I won't be. Once burned, twice shy.

best,

Chipp

Dave Cragg wrote:

> But I'm not entirely clear of the lesson to be learned. Is the  problem 
> really with revDeleteFolder, or with the nature of script  locals?
> 
> If we don't use revDeleteFolder, but we want to delete a folder, then  
> we have to roll our own routines. This can be plenty dangerous too.

> So do we warn people not to use revDeleteFolder, and leave them to  
> their own potentially dangerous devices. Or simply warn people to be  
> *extremely* careful when deleting folders and check they are in fact  
> deleting the intended folder.