Re: dired "Cannot operate on `.' or `..'" for what good reason?

[Mathias Dahl]

Dan Jacobson <jidanni@jidanni.org> writes:

> Hurmf, somebody put
>      ((and (not no-error-if-not-filep)
>          (member file '("." "..")))
>       (error "Cannot operate on `.' or `..'"))
> in dired.el, meaning that I can no longer do
> (dired-do-shell-command "du -s" nil (quote ("."))), i.e.,
> ! d u SPC - s <return>
> There are no comments in the code saying why the new restriction.

I agree that it is annoying. Previously I could place point at "." and
do C-u i and then add an "R" to get a recursive dired listing. Now I
have to back up one directory instead, which does not suit me at
all. I would also be interesting in knowing why this changed.