Safe File Operations

Safe File Operations

CRITICAL: Before running any potentially destructive commands (mv, rm, cp with overwrite, etc.), ALWAYS verify the environment first:

1. Check working directory: Run pwd to confirm you're in the expected location
2. Verify file existence: Use ls -la <file> to check files exist and are what you expect
3. Check file types: Verify if files are regular files or symlinks before operations
4. Test on one file first: For batch operations, test the command on a single file before looping
5. Verify after operations: Check the result with ls -la to confirm success

Example safe workflow:

# DON'T DO THIS:
mv CLAUDE.md AGENTS.md  # Blind execution

# DO THIS INSTEAD:
pwd                      # Verify location
ls -la CLAUDE.md         # Confirm file exists
mv CLAUDE.md AGENTS.md   # Execute
ls -la AGENTS.md         # Verify success

For batch operations:

# Test on ONE file first
cd /path/to/first/dir && pwd && ls -la CLAUDE.md && mv CLAUDE.md AGENTS.md && ls -la AGENTS.md

# Only after confirming success, proceed with batch
for dir in ...; do ...; done

The user is trusting you with their files. Be careful!