How to make sure that a file is deleted with one command?

[plavjanik]

I am trying to delete a file that may not exist.

In Linux, I would use rm -f /tmp/may-not-exist and that would either delete it if it is there or not delete without any error message and error code if it is already deleted.

The man page of rm says:

     -f          Attempt to remove the files without prompting for confirmation, regardless of the file's permissions.  If the file does not exist, do not display a
                 diagnostic message or modify the exit status to reflect an error.  

This is a useful option because I do not need to check if the file is deleted before I am deleting and it leads to simple and more stable automation (because the file can be deleted outside of my script after the check).

The Zowe CLI has -f option that has a different meaning. If the file does not exist, Zowe CLI fails with an error.

--for-sure | -f (boolean)

Specify this option to confirm that you want to delete the file or directory permanently.

It would be useful to have a similar option -f as Linux rm has so it returns 0 when the file does not exist.

The current behavior is:

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[adam-wolfe]

We could add an ignore/suppress errors option for delete operations.

[JTonda]

Implement as new flag and only detect that files not there as a success.

[adam-wolfe]

Suggesting adding a --quiet flag, that attempts the delete and checks that the file does not exist. No errors would be thrown as long as the file is not in place after the attempted delete operation.

This would be for delete ops for DS, USS, zFS, and maybe VSAM.