Debian and Fedora

Jacques B. jjrboucher at gmail.com
Wed Oct 24 11:03:54 UTC 2007


On 10/24/07, Jacques B. <jjrboucher at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 10/24/07, Tim <ignored_mailbox at yahoo.com.au> wrote:
> > Roger Benham:
> > >>> As I cannot empty the trash in either Debian or Fedora
> > >>> my main computer is rapidly jamming up. I need to be
> > >>> able to empty both.
> >
> > Jacques B:
> > > Sounds like it may be an issue of permissions.
> >
> > Does sound like that.  Perhaps someone who uses the root user when they
> > shouldn't be?
> >
> > > Have them go to the command line and list the files in the .trash
> > > folder to see who owns them.  Actually have them do the same for
> > > the actual folder itself.
> >
> > I thought it was ".Trash", it is on my Fedora.  No idea about Debian,
> > though.  If it is a "root" user related issue, they may need to go
> > through doing this as root.
> >
> > --
> Sorry, I'm sure you are correct that it's .Trash and not .trash.  I
> don't have a Linux box in front of me when at home (hoping to change
> that soon...) so usually can't easily check the syntax.
>
> And correct about doing it as root.  I noted that as well at the end
> of the posting to su - to root.  But I figured I'd only suggest that
> if they were unable to do it as non-root.  If they can do it as
> non-root but yet can't do it from the GUI then it is probably not an
> issue of permissions but one of a problem with the trash can on the
> GUI (although where it's happening across two different systems it is
> more likely that permissions is the issue).
>
> Slightly off to the side of this discussion - is there a standard
> defining file naming convention for some of these files (i.e. .Trash
> vs .trash)?  I read the FHS document the other day after rday reminded
> me about it (I was aware that such a standard existed but had never
> taken the time to seek it out and read it) and found it very
> informative (I'll refrain from sounding like a real geek and say I
> found it very interesting.).
>
> ---Dave--- Can you please update us once your friend has tried our suggestions?
>
> Jacques B.
>

An afterthought here...can you configure to what .Trash folder the
trash can on the desktop associates with?  By that I mean can I be
logged in as a regular user but somehow my trash can icon is pointing
to someone else's .Trash folder?  Or can you have it so a user's
deleted files (whether done via command line or GUI) go to another
user's .Trash?  First and foremost permissions would be required.  But
if this can happen, what if for some reason his root user's trash gets
dumped to a regular user's .Trash?  So when root deletes something it
gets dumped into a regular user's .Trash who in turn would not be able
to empty it seeing they do not have the necessary permissions.

Jacques B




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