Re: [WDYT] org-attach-sync better remove an empty attachment directory?

[Marco Wahl]

    Marco> Please recall that only empty attachment directories would be
    Marco> removed, so removal of a directory--and in particular one
    Marco> that existed before its interpretation as Org
    Marco> attachment--wouldn't be a big deal AFAICS.

    Tim> Not as confident here. I can imagine workflows and other
    Tim> external scripts which might expect a specific directory
    Tim> structure that could be broken if a directory was removed (even
    Tim> when empty). Hence my suggestion it needs to be something you
    Tim> can turn off.

    Tim> Likely this is something which should be controllable via a
    Tim> custom setting?

    Marco> To be honest I'd rather not make another customizable thing
    Marco> out of it to keep the overall complexity low.
    Marco> 
    Marco> OTOH we could easily introduce e.g. customizable
    Marco> org-attach-delete-empty-dirs-on-sync.

    Tim> Appreciate the problem with far too many customization options,
    Tim> but when it comes to software 'automatically' doing something,
    Tim> like removal of an empty directory, especially when it might
    Tim> not have been responsible for creation of the directory, it is
    Tim> better to provide some way to allow the user to turn off the
    Tim> behaviour. I would default to having it enabled though.

    Colin> I'm afraid I for one often have empty attach directories
    Colin> which I leave alone knowing that one day soon - sometimes
    Colin> very soon - they will be used again. Cannot the user be asked
    Colin> if he wants the directory removed?

Thanks Tim and Colin.

We could introduce multiple possibilities to choose from.

1. Ask in case of an empty directory if it should be deleted.
2. Don't ask.  Don't touch an empty directory.  (The state now.)
3. Don't ask.  Delete empty directory.

We could also make 3. the default setting.