https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/749558/remove-exact-line-from-file-if-present-leave-the-rest-of-lines-error-handling/749581#749581
Try the `unlink` line from the U&L StackExchange link above.
(three-line backup code: `spurt` file to backup copy, `unlink` original,
`copy` backup to original path location):
`unlink("/path/to/original.txt".IO) if "/path/to/original_bak.txt".IO ~~ :e &
:f;`
HTH, Bill.
> On Oct 9, 2025, at 17:19, ToddAndMargo via perl6-users <[email protected]>
> wrote:
>
>>> On Thu, Oct 9, 2025 at 5:25 PM ToddAndMargo via perl6-users <perl6-
>>> [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
>>> On 10/9/25 7:44 AM, Tom Browder wrote:
>>> > if not unlink $OldFileName {
>>> > PrintRedErr( "Unable to Delete OldFileName
>>> <$OldFileName>\n" );
>>> > }
>>> >
>>> >
>>> > Todd, what is your intent? Do want to delete an existing? Or not?
>>> Hi Tom,
>>> I want to delete an existing file.
>>> This is a file download program that checks for new revisions
>>> of software I support and copies to a special flash drive with
>>> a read only switch, so it does not pick up or spread viruses.
>>> If it finds a new version, it downloads it and removes the
>>> old version.
>>> In this particular sub, the new version is tested to see if
>>> it is the predicted size. If so, it deletes the old version
>>> of that file. If the size test file fails, it alerts and removes
>>> that bad new file (303 not found, etc.) and leaves the
>>> old file alone.
>>> I was presuming that unlink returned a true or false. True
>>> if delete was successful and false if not. The results
>>> were random. (It mostly worked.)
>>> -T
>
>
> On 10/9/25 2:46 PM, Will Coleda wrote:
> > Per the docs:
> >
> > *The method form returns True on success, or fails with X::IO::Unlink if
> > the operation could not be completed. If the file to be deleted does not
> > exist, the routine treats it as success.
> > *
> >
> > So I'm assuming that your occasional failures might have been if
> > something had the file open at the time you were trying to unlink it.
> >
> > When it fails, whatever the OS error was is in the Exception object, so
> > you can introspect it and see what the complaint was.
> >
> > Note - you do not have to check to see if the file exists before you
> > remove it. As long as the file isn't there, that's a success. You only
> > need to check that if specifically care if it existed first.
>
>
> This what I believed to be the case as well.
>
> The file absolutely exists. It is tested for in
> a different sub.
>
>
>
>
