[Digikam-users] How to keep digiKam from deleting image files

[Jean-François Rabasse]

On Wed, 26 Jun 2013, Elle Stone wrote:

> Jonas and Jean-François, thank you very much for the suggested
> solutions, both of which sound like they would work.

They work, not just « would » work.:-)

Jonas's suggestion of using files attributes is the best solution when
you need fine control on individual files. (E.g. if you use raw formats
and want to keep them unchanged forever, 'chattr +i' is the solution.)
Read-only mounts is a too global solution, all or nothing, for that.

Be aware of one detail, files attributes get associated with POSIX like
filesystems, ext2, ext3, ext4, and may not be supported on other formats.
So, when you backup folders with protected files on a different filesystem
(though I'm a Linuxian, I often format USB drives partitions under
HPFS/NTFS format to be able to read my images on any Apple or MS-Win
computer), these attributes may get lost during copy.
The day you restore from such a backup, e.g. after a main disk crash,
your protected files are no longer protected and you won't « see » that
and keep on believing your protected files are protected.
Which is no longer true...

> Which is why the option to disable the ability to delete images would
> be nice to have for those of us who don't want digiKam to delete any
> images, any time, for any reason. Although perhaps I'm the only such
> person?

You're not. I never use DK to delete, move, reorganize. My personal
reason is that my folders contain non images associated files (e.g.
GPX tracks logs, text documents with travel notes, etc.) and Digikam
doesn't use/show non images files.
Dolphin does, so I can do consistent moves without leaving orphan
files on the way.

Well, it's up to Digikam developers to comment your suggestion.

My personal opinion is that this could induce negative psychological
side effects.
When you are used to work with such a secured application (« delete is
impossible, so whatever I do/type, I can't get a disaster »), the effect
is to decrease your mental vigilance level. And at the moment you launch
another application, not implemented with this impossible delete, then
you increase the risk of a disaster due to lower vigilance.
We are humans, and human behaviours have laws.:-)

I remain persuaded that a good protection strategy, files attributes,
read-only mounts, special account, etc., that is independent of all
used software applications, will offer you the best security level.

Regards,
Jean-François