This is a common operation on the Wikisources: what on a Wikipedia would be "a page" is on Wikisource "this collection of pages in multiple namespaces". Thus having a list of pages, possibly into the thousands (one per page of a book, for example), is a very common scenario. Based on recent experience on enWS it is even more common than mass deleting all contribs from a particular user (most of our recent spammers have constrained themselves to a single page).

A typical case will start with a list of subpages garnered from Special:PrefixIndex. The ProofreadPage extension that powers the Wikisource workflow puts each individual page in a scanned book into Page:filename.pdf/1, Page:filename.pdf/2. And when a work (book) is exposed to readers it will often be structured as Title of Work, Title of Work/Preface, Title of Work/Chapter 1 and so forth.

In other words, what on Wikipedia would be a simple delete on a single page (the article), on Wikisource is a batch delete of a page and anything from a handful to a thousand pages with a common prefix.

@brion @JeroenDeDauw Isn't it about time Extension:Nuke got a little TLC? Last release was in 2017, and this phab would also fit nicely with this year's Community Wishlist focus. Just sayin'… 😎

PS. We're currently making do with a local gadget, but it's old and clunky and enWS doesn't have any local Interface Administrators so it's a pain to maintain and in practice impossible to improve.

PPS. Fixing this phab would also obviate the need for the tasks blocked on T145966. I think we can safely conclude that Extension:DeleteBatch will never be adapted to get by @Bawolff's watchful eye; but maybe there is some synergy in making Extension:DynamicPageList and Extension:Nuke talk to each other?

Possibly related: T236469

PPS. Fixing this phab would also obviate the need for the tasks blocked on T145966. I think we can safely conclude that Extension:DeleteBatch will never be adapted to get by @Bawolff's watchful eye; but maybe there is some synergy in making Extension:DynamicPageList and Extension:Nuke talk to each other?

Fyi, im not currently assigned to sec reviews, so its not me you have to convince anymore! But for reference, the extension very mildly failed, it could probably be reconsidered if there was sufficient desire behind it (especially if spoof user option is off). The bigger concern (which wasnt mentioned on the original review) is that is probably a lot of page deleting in one POST request.

You can use the SQL Like field to delete subpages like so:

Does this solve the use case requested above about batch deleting for a given primary page title subpage? I appreciate there's still a request here to provide an arbitrary list, but it seems like current behaviour should work for the common Wikisource workflow.

In T68447#9772471, @Samwalton9-WMF wrote:

You can use the SQL Like field to delete subpages like so:

Does this solve the use case requested above about batch deleting for a given primary page title subpage? I appreciate there's still a request here to provide an arbitrary list, but it seems like current behaviour should work for the common Wikisource workflow.

Importantly for the Wikisource use case, however, note that you put the page title name in the SQL LIKE field, and then narrow to the correct namespace. Entering User:Admin/% in this example would not work:

From my current testing this appears to be current behaviour and is not affected by T234726.