The Windows partition on my computer has its own Linux .Trash folder for each account, which folder is not cleared when I select the Empty Trash option of the Trash icon of my Linux desktop. So I thought, Eh, I'll created some symbolic links in my home-folder, so that I can quickly access the /mnt/WindowsXP/.Trash-root and /mnt/WindowsXP/.Trash-daniel.

An amusing thing occurred when I tried to delete files from one of the .Trash folders with the GUI by opening the folder by way of the symbolic link, selecting the files to be deleted, and then using the Delete key.

The file is deleted, but it's replaced with a copy. Delete x.y, and it is replaced by x (copy).y; delete that and it's replaced by x (another copy).jpg, which would be replaced by x (3rd copy).y, and so forth.

(The same results obtain if one selects Move to Trash, but the result is a little less bizarre since one is then plainly telling the computer to move the file to a directory in which it is already listed.)

Convenient work-arounds are easy enough when I want to empty the whole .Trash folder by way of the GUI, but these symbolic links aren't nearly as useful as I'd hoped.

Tags: everyday absurdity, Linux

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