Remove Books anomaly?

[unboggling]

The permissions on files in both Add and Main on internal drive (with problems):

myaccount rw, wheel r, everyone r.

The permissions on files in copy of lib on ext drive tested earlier (without problems):

myaccount rw, staff r, everyone r.

Note: I've noticed the difference between wheel on internal drive and staff on externals before, and had assumed that was standard in OSX.

[unboggling]

The permissions on drives (that propagate to created dirs and files):
internal: myaccount rw, system rw, admin rw, everyone r
external: myaccount rw, staff rw, everyone rw

I doublechecked all permissions on lib files and HDs are as indicated.

EDIT: And External is shared HD, Internal not shared.

[kovidgoyal]

You'll have to wait for someone more familiar with OS X to comment.

[unboggling]

Kovid, OK. Thanks for the help. The debugger and comparisons of logs led to narrowing down the problem, very useful. I'll await further help and while awaiting, think about it.

I'm stumped. I know I can probably solve the problem temporarily by either (1) moving Add and Main to external drive, or (2) leaving them where they are on internal and assigning everyone rw permission on all files. But (1) would run slightly slower in file manipulation and I'm not sure how new files would be handled permission-wise; and (2) is definitely temporary - I know any new-add formats, opfs & cvrs will end up with the old faulty permissions. Why they are faulty in the first place is the primary question.

One other thing I can think of that might relate and cause problems: I have 2 macs wirelessly networked. Mac1 has MyAccountA as the username. Mac2 has MyAccountA as the username (the same exact name). OSX treats those as 2 different names (each needing it's own file permissions) - Mac1MyAccountA and Mac2MyAccountA. I have made a supreme effort the past 2 months to keep Mac2's me away from Mac1's internal drive calibre files. Mac2's me and Mac2's calibre only access a copy of a backup file that stays untouched by Mac1 me and Mac1 calibre. That way calibre doesn't bawk at the different accounts trying to use the same library db or files and the 2 usernames' library file permissions don't get mixed up. I have calibre instances running on both computers, one accessing/showing the copy of a backup of Main and the other accessing/showing Add. This permits me to work on Add and easily refer back to author, series, etc metadata in Main on side by side computers. A couple months ago I learned the hard way not to let the two calibre instances touch the same instance of a library serially or simultaneously. At that time I fixed (I thought) the resulting mess in permissions and discrepancies in opfs and metadatadb. Since then I have been extremely careful and am 99.9% sure the 2 instances have not crossed swords or messed with each others' files.

[unboggling]

Originally Posted by unboggling

Hmmm. Trashing files out in the OS works fine.

This morning when I first checked this I didn't do it on the same exact problem-library files but on non-calibre related files with potentially different permission set (I can't remember which specific files). So this was a wrong conclusion based on inadequate test.

While in the OS when I delete files from the problem libraries on the internal hd the OS produces similar behavior to calibre: a dialog box comes up saying they can't be put in the trash bin but can be deleted immediately. Yes deletes the files immediately and they don't show up in the trash, and no cancels the action.

Therefore I am leaning towards thinking this is a problem of OS confusion of Mac1Username with Mac2Username, the usernames being identical, in file permissions. I hadn't considered this seriously earlier because 2 months ago Apple Tech Support insisted OSX would distinguish the 2 usernames and there wouldn't be a problem. (Naive me.) Now I wonder if part of the solution is to change Mac2username to be *different* from Mac1username, reset all permissions with both users having rw permission, and share all libraries. Yet I distinctly recall when I tested that a couple months ago, it didn't work. All new files generated within calibre got assigned rw permission only to the username owner, not rw to both users, and not rw to everyone - even when the parent HD and dirs were shared and had the desired rw permissions. That it didn't work was the original reason I called Apple Tech Supt in the first place.

EDIT: Furthermore, testing of various non-calibre-related files on the internal drive show the same behavior. So this problem is related to internal drive parent permissions and/or possibly a problem generated by moving files a few months ago from old Computer 2, to new Computer 3 (which I returned due to issues) to current Computer 1.

EDIT: And the files on the shared external drives trash into the trash without any problems. EDIT: (so far, anyway. Too many GB of backups etc to manually check many of them.)

Good thing I'm not prone to ulcers. Yet.

[unboggling]

And finally (for tonight), all of that is new behavior in the past 3 or 4 days. Never had this trash problem before. Though admittedly I hadn't been deleting any files in archives that had migrated to this internal drive through other computers. But I know for certain that the problem with trashing books from within calibre is new because up until a few days ago I often rescued mistakenly deleted files from the trash.

EDIT. I can't think of anything that changed since then except (1) calibre update to 0.8.12 and [uh oh, I just remembered] a small Apple SW Update. Tomorrow I'll call Apple Tech Support and try to find out what changed.

[unboggling]

[Deleted text needing clarification and irrelevant to this thread.]

[unboggling]

Resolved. The Apple software update that ran the other day changed something relating to Access Control Lists (ACLs). That somehow affected ACLs pertaining to internal disk home folder. Fix: with OSX install disk in, boot holding 'c' key down; choose Reset ACLs on menu; click reset button in ACLs dialog box; reboot. Amazing - Apple Tech Support called within 5 seconds of my clicking the "Call You Now" choice on their tech support page. Limited testing since ACLs reset shows resumption of normal OSX and calibre trashing behavior.

My apologies for initially assuming it was a calibre problem, and for possibly boring anybody by thinking out loud in this thread. But typing as I thought about it really helped me think about it. Knowing others might read what I typed made me think about the problem more carefully and thoroughly. So thank you for listening.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by unboggling

Resolved. The Apple software update that ran the other day changed something relating to Access Control Lists (ACLs). That somehow affected ACLs pertaining to internal disk home folder. Fix: with OSX install disk in, boot holding 'c' key down; choose Reset ACLs on menu; click reset button in ACLs dialog box; reboot. Amazing - Apple Tech Support called within 5 seconds of my clicking the "Call You Now" choice on their tech support page. Limited testing since ACLs reset shows resumption of normal OSX and calibre trashing behavior.

My apologies for initially assuming it was a calibre problem, and for possibly boring anybody by thinking out loud in this thread. But typing as I thought about it really helped me think about it. Knowing others might read what I typed made me think about the problem more carefully and thoroughly. So thank you for listening.

Not being an Apple person
Did ther update list whaw it was going to do or was it worded like M$ in grossly genery terms like "fix ...Security Vulnerability " (that tells you exactly: ZIP about what it will do).
The only thin Worse is the stealth reboot update that lurks until you go to shut down (maybe with a exhausted battery) and are warned Do Not Unplug/Turn Off.

[unboggling]

Apple used to list each update package's contents with name of update patch and brief description. Often there were multiple updates listed with check boxes giving user a choice to install or not, such as a list of iTunes update, iCal update, OS this or that update. I don't know when that changed - there were a few years last decade I wasn't a Mac user - but now there is no list, description, or checkbox choices, just a dialog saying update available, install now? Apple's primary philosophy seems to be to make things as transparent and automatic for user as possible, done in background rather than foreground, preferably with user not needing to know or care about it. Keeping users as up to date as possible in their OS prevents a lot of otherwise necessary customer support work. I don't think the philosophy is to keep the users stupid or ignorant, but it is more like "Why bother user with maintenance administrivia?" Superusers who do care about stuff like that generally get what they need from Apple's developer sites, forums, apps, etc.

[unboggling]

And thank you, Kovid. You pegged the problem area as OSX early on.

[damnated]

Sorry for bumping this, but I'm having the same issue on Linux (Mint Debian).

If I remove a book it gets deleted from the disk entirely, it skips the trash. If it wasn't for a backup software I would have lost a couple of books that got removed by accident.

Is this a feature or a bug? I dread clicking on books now. I could also replace my mouse, but that's another thing.

[unboggling]

I'm not a Linux person. Does Linux use Access Control Lists? Anyway, for me it had to do with ACLs being messed up in my "home" user account directory, some conflict with file permissions. No idea how to reset any of that in Linux.

It's not a feature. It's probably a problem specific to your Linux set-up.

[kovidgoyal]

There is no support for trash bins on linux.

[jgaiser]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

There is no support for trash bins on linux.

No kernel level support? Because Ubuntu certainly has a trash bin.