Remove Children #6319

flamingos-cant · 2026-02-04T15:18:08Z

Fixes #3841
Depends on LemmyNet/lemmy-js-client#844

This adds new API endpoints post/remove_with_children and comment/remove_with_children. I originally had this be an optional remove_children on the plain remove endpoints, but I couldn't figure out a good way to represent only removing the replies to something on the ActivityPub side. This made the option confusing as it overrode the actual remove, so instead I moved this to its own endpoint so it's not as confusing for client developers.

…thread

crates/api/api/src/comment/remove_with_children.rs

Nutomic · 2026-02-05T10:50:47Z

crates/db_schema/src/impls/comment_report.rs

+    let report_alias = diesel::alias!(comment_report as cr);
+    let report_subquery = report_alias
+      .inner_join(comment::table.on(comment::id.eq(report_alias.field(comment_report::comment_id))))
+      .filter(comment::path.contained_by(comment_path));


Should check .starts_with instead of .contained_by (or same thing via .ilike). But it seems that none of these are available for LTree.

No, this is right. contained_by runs the <@ operator that does what we want.

crates/apub/activities/src/deletion/delete.rs

crates/api/api_utils/src/send_activity.rs

Nutomic · 2026-02-05T11:05:56Z

crates/api/api_crud/src/post/remove.rs

+  build_post_response(&context, community.id, local_user_view, post_id).await
+}
+
+pub async fn remove_post_with_children(


Maybe subjective but I prefer to use with_replies everywhere.

I've removed this function, but added back the remove_children fields. I can change this to with_replies, I think both make sense.

dessalines · 2026-02-09T18:13:01Z

I deployed lemmy-js-client: 1.0.0-remove-children.0

dessalines · 2026-02-09T18:21:46Z

crates/api/api_crud/src/comment/remove.rs

-    },
-  )
-  .await?;
+    let orig_comment_id = orig_comment.comment.id;


We already have comment_id above.

dessalines · 2026-02-09T18:22:26Z

crates/api/api_crud/src/comment/remove.rs

+    let updated_comment = updated_comments
+      .iter()
+      .find(|c| c.id == orig_comment_id)
+      .ok_or(LemmyErrorType::CouldntUpdate)?;


This avoids an extra API call / read so its fine.

dessalines · 2026-02-09T18:36:31Z

crates/api/api_crud/src/comment/remove.rs

+  } else {
+    // Don't allow removing or restoring comment which was deleted by user, as it would reveal
+    // the comment text in mod log.
+    if orig_comment.comment.deleted {
+      return Err(LemmyErrorType::CouldntUpdate.into());
+    }


Why is this in an else block now? Then you'll be able to reveal the comment text in the modlog as long as delete children is true.

Probably just keep this top level.

I figured it'd be useful to be able to remove the replies to a deleted comment.

dessalines · 2026-02-09T18:39:40Z

crates/api/api_crud/src/comment/remove.rs

+    let form = ModlogInsertForm::mod_remove_comment(
+      local_user_view.person.id,
+      &orig_comment.comment,
+      removed,
+      &data.reason,
+    );
+    let actions = Modlog::create(&mut context.pool(), &[form]).await?;


Then we aren't creating a bunch of rows for each of these? I notice lock also works like this so its probably fine. I guess that's #6323

dessalines · 2026-02-09T18:42:12Z

crates/api/api_crud/src/post/remove.rs

  local_user_view: LocalUserView,
 ) -> LemmyResult<Json<PostResponse>> {
  let post_id = data.post_id;
+  let removed = data.remove_children.unwrap_or(data.removed);


Potentially dangerous, you can remove, see below comment.

unwrap_or is safe, though? I do this here to enforce the aforementioned problem with federation, otherwise only the comments will get removed locally but on federated instances the post be removed as well.

dessalines · 2026-02-09T18:43:35Z

crates/api/api_crud/src/post/remove.rs

+  if data.remove_children.is_some() {
+    remove_or_restore_post_comments(
+      &post,
+      local_user_view.person.id,
+      removed,
+      &data.reason,
+      &context,
+    )
+    .await?;


Use the if let Some(remove_children) = data.remove_children, its much safer.

dessalines · 2026-02-09T18:45:18Z

crates/api/api_utils/src/utils.rs

+  let removed_comments: Vec<Comment> =
+    Comment::update_removed_for_comment_and_children(&mut context.pool(), &comment.path, removed)
+      .await?
+      // Filter out deleted comments here so their content doesn't show up in the modlog.


dessalines · 2026-02-09T18:54:47Z

crates/api/api_utils/src/utils.rs

+      .filter(|c| !c.deleted)
+      .collect();
+
+  let actions = create_modlog_entries_for_removed_or_restored_comments(


This is really confusing to have the modlog entries being written at two levels, both in this function, and in the top level api action. In the API action it seemed like none of these were being written.

Another problem: I think this will probably also dupe a mod remove entry for the original comment

Since this function is only ever called from the api action, how about just copy-pasting its internals to inside the if let Some(remove_children) block. Then we'll clearly see everything that's being done.

If you look at how you did crates/api/api/src/comment/lock.rs, its much cleaner: no duped actions, everything occurs at the same level.

Its probably better to group the actions by their type also. Do all the modlog inserts in one place, all the comment updates in one place, etc. BC right now its confusing to trace all this down.

Since this function is only ever called from the api action

This function is also called from the APub side, as I wanted to avoid duping a bunch of code. It's ~22 lines and causing more confusion than I thought it would, so I'll just copy them everywhere.

Another problem: I think this will probably also dupe a mod remove entry for the original comment

The modlog entry for a single comment only gets written if remove_children is None.

Its probably better to group the actions by their type also. Do all the modlog inserts in one place, all the comment updates in one place, etc. BC right now its confusing to trace all this down.

I don't know how I'd do that. We're dealing with two data types here, Comment and Vec<Comment>, and mixing data types in rust requires a bunch of boilerplate.

dessalines · 2026-02-09T19:20:04Z

crates/api/api_utils/src/utils.rs

+      .filter(|c| !c.deleted)
+      .collect();
+
+  let actions = create_modlog_entries_for_removed_or_restored_comments(


This is really confusing to have the modlog entries being written at two levels, both in this function, and in the top level api action. In the API action it seemed like none of these were being written.

Another problem: I think this will probably also dupe a mod remove entry for the original comment

Since this function is only ever called from the api action, how about just copy-pasting its internals to inside the if let Some(remove_children) block. Then we'll clearly see everything that's being done.

If you look at how you did crates/api/api/src/comment/lock.rs, its much cleaner: no duped actions, everything occurs at the same level.

I'd also move the modlog inserts to right next to the existing one at the bottom of the API action.

…thread

flamingos-cant added 13 commits January 24, 2026 09:57

Remove comment thread API

c2c82aa

Remove Comment Apub

96b7ab3

Remove Post API+Apub

b32a15e

Merge branch 'main' of https://github.com/LemmyNet/lemmy into remove-…

5e44bb0

…thread

Move to own API endpoint

f868e10

fmt

faff627

Merge branch 'main' of https://github.com/LemmyNet/lemmy into remove-…

7e6039f

…thread

Fix

59b8074

Fix test

403da65

API test

cbf596a

Clippy

69d0109

Merge branch 'main' of https://github.com/LemmyNet/lemmy into remove-…

7d41e9f

…thread

Get rid of WithChildren structs

663205b

flamingos-cant requested review from Nutomic, SleeplessOne1917, dessalines, dullbananas and phiresky as code owners February 4, 2026 15:18

flamingos-cant changed the title ~~Remove thread~~ Remove Children Feb 4, 2026

dessalines reviewed Feb 4, 2026

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crates/api/api/src/comment/remove_with_children.rs Outdated Show resolved Hide resolved

Nutomic reviewed Feb 5, 2026

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crates/apub/activities/src/deletion/delete.rs Outdated Show resolved Hide resolved

Nutomic reviewed Feb 5, 2026

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crates/api/api_utils/src/send_activity.rs Outdated Show resolved Hide resolved

Nutomic reviewed Feb 5, 2026

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Nutomic mentioned this pull request Feb 5, 2026

New column Modlog.bulk #6323

Open

flamingos-cant added 3 commits February 9, 2026 06:49

Merge API endpoints

e5d009a

Fix API tests

af39563

Clippy

ab47f8f

dessalines reviewed Feb 9, 2026

View reviewed changes

flamingos-cant added 4 commits February 10, 2026 01:52

Merge branch 'main' of https://github.com/LemmyNet/lemmy into remove-…

f69c449

…thread

Update test package

9d282b1

Move actions out of function

ba65452

fmt

7474a00

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Remove Children #6319

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Remove Children #6319

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flamingos-cant commented Feb 4, 2026 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

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dessalines commented Feb 9, 2026

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dessalines Feb 9, 2026 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

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flamingos-cant commented Feb 4, 2026 •

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dessalines Feb 9, 2026 •

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