Critical: File operations fail silently without user notification

[coderabbitai]

Problem

Many critical file operations in superfile fail silently when errors occur. Errors are logged via slog.Error but never surfaced to the user through UI notifications or modals. This creates a poor user experience where operations appear to succeed but actually fail, leaving users confused about the application state.

Why Silent Failures Are Bad

1. Poor User Experience: Users don't know their operation failed or why
2. Data Loss Risk: Users may assume files were copied/deleted/renamed when they weren't
3. Debugging Difficulty: Users can't report meaningful bugs without error messages
4. Trust Issues: Silent failures erode confidence in the application
5. No Recovery Path: Users can't take corrective action if they don't know what failed

Examples of Silent Failures

1. Bulk Rename Editor Errors (src/internal/model.go)

• Line 570: No pending editor action found - logs and returns nil
• Line 581: Editor finished with error - logs and returns nil
• Line 591-593: Line count mismatch between tmpfile and selected files - logs and returns nil
• Line 612: Failed to read tmpfile - logs and returns error without user notification

2. Delete Operation Failures (src/internal/handle_file_operations.go)

• Line 141: Cannot spawn a new process - returns Failed state without user notification
• Line 153: Error in delete operation - breaks loop but no immediate user feedback
• Line 167: Failed to send final delete operation update - logs only

3. Copy/Paste Operation Failures (src/internal/handle_file_operations.go)

• Line 281: Cannot spawn a new process for copy - returns Failed without notification
• Line 306: Copy errors - sets Failed state but no immediate user notification
• Line 319: Could not send final update for process Bar - logs only

4. Extract/Compress Failures (src/internal/handle_file_operations.go)

• Line 362: Error unexpected file - unsupported extension, returns nil silently
• Lines 374-387: Multiple extract errors (rename, mkdir, extract) - return Failed without notification
• Lines 415-421: Compress errors (getZipArchiveName, zipSources) - return Failed without notification

5. Panel Creation Failures (src/internal/key_function.go)

• Line 69: error while creating new panel - logs only, continues silently

6. Directory Reading Failures (src/internal/function.go)

• Lines 70-71: Error while returning folder elements - returns nil, empty panel
• Lines 92-93: Error while return folder element function - returns nil, empty panel

7. Initialization Failures (src/internal/config_function.go)

• Line 66: exiftool init error - logs only, continues with nil
• Line 79: zoxide client init error - logs only, feature silently unavailable
• Lines 102, 108: file panel dir errors - logs only, falls back to home without notifying user

Proposed Solution

For critical user-initiated file operations (delete, copy, rename, compress, extract), we should:

1. Surface errors via notify.New() with:

   • Clear error title (e.g., "Delete Failed", "Bulk Rename Error")
   • Descriptive message explaining what went wrong
   • Appropriate action type (usually notify.NoAction for errors)

2. Keep process bar integration for async operations that already show progress

3. Example fix for bulk rename line count mismatch:

if len(lines) != len(action.SelectedFiles) {
    slog.Error("Number of lines in tmpfile doesn't match number of selected files",
        "expected", len(action.SelectedFiles), "got", len(lines))
    m.notifyModel = notify.New(true, "Bulk Rename Error",
        "Line count mismatch between edited names and selected files.",
        notify.NoAction)
    return nil
}

Scope

This issue tracks:

• ✅ Identifying all silent failure points in file operations
• ⬜ Adding user notifications for critical failures
• ⬜ Maintaining slog logging for debugging
• ⬜ Testing error paths to ensure notifications appear correctly

Related

• Identified in PR feat: add bulk rename #1113 review: feat: add bulk rename #1113 (comment)
• Related to overall error handling architecture improvements