[Bf-committers] Handling of user data.

[Harley Acheson]

> The Idea being to put all of the unlinked stuff into some trash can of
sorts...

That is what we would have if we would simply just save everything, with
your "trash can"
just being the items that have zero users. Then you can choose, at any
time, to remove
those items.

These two approaches to data - only save things that are in use except for
items the user
has explicitly marked, versus saving all user data and allowing them to
delete what they
want - are not symmetrical.  The former creates an emergency at the point
of exit that we
will not be able to fix with warnings.  The latter removes that emergency
and allows the user
to deal with it at leisure.

I have heard the argument that "OMG, this will make our files bloat".  But
you can turn such
a "bloated file" into one without saved orphans with the currently existing
"purge orphans"
operator. You can run this all the time, make it an option to run on save,
or never run it. But
it leaves this to you to deal with when you want, not done *for *you.

With the thought of (slowly) moving toward saving orphan data, the
following experimental
patch replaces the current File / Clean Up menu of items with a single
"Clean Up" dialog
that can be used remove orphans, set all orphans to fake user, or to bring
up a window
with Outliner set to "Orphan Data" mode so you can manage them granularly.

https://developer.blender.org/D14030

Harley