Prevent the deletion of interfaces which have children assigned

[MrPaulAR]

NetBox version

v3.4.7

Feature type

Change to existing functionality

Proposed functionality

When a parent interface is removed the child interface remains. There was some discussion in #9359 (comment) regarding this but I don't think it was ever implemented or an explicit decision to not add this feature.

Initial state

After deleting the parent interface

The same is true when deleting a module. The parent interface is remove but the child persists.

Use case

I'm sure there are exceptions but I would think the child interfaces should be removed whenever the parent is deleted.

Database changes

I'm not smart enough for this.

External dependencies

No response

[jsenecal]

I propose that we change dcim/models/device_components.py#L485 to on_delete=models.CASCADE

And do the same for other similar cases.

[BarbarossaTM]

I like this and I think with a confirmation screen which shows all interfaces to be deleted this would be very handy to have.

[jeremystretch]

I have to disagree; this seems very dangerous IMO. If the concern is about leaving orphaned interfaces, I'd suggest changing the on_delete behavior to PROTECT, which will prevent the deletion of the parent interface until all its children have been removed. This ensures that all delete operations are explicit and intentional, mitigating against the unintentional deletion of related objects.

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[jsenecal]

I'd suggest changing the on_delete behavior to PROTECT

I'm good with either, but I do think that the delete confirmation, which tells which other objects are about to be deleted would suffice UI wise. Is your concern more about API behavior @jeremystretch ?