Totally agree it shouldn't be for basic tools; but if I'm ever developing a script that performs any kind of logic before reaching out to a DB or vendor API and modifies 100k user records, creating a flag to just verify the sanity of the logic is a necessity.

▲ Joker_vD 13 hours ago | parent | next [-]

    if [ -n "$DRY_RUN" ] ; then
        alias rm='echo rm'
        alias cp='echo cp'
    fi

Of course, output redirects will still overwrite the files, since the shell does it and IIRC this behaviour can't be changed.

▲

digiown 12 hours ago | parent [-]

set -o noclobber

	▲	9 hours ago \| parent [-]
		[deleted]

▲ james_marks 13 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Yep. First thing I do for this kind thing is make a preview=true flag so I don’t accidentally run destructive actions.