Contents|Symbol Index|Up: Issues|Prev: DEFVAR-INITIALIZATION|Next: DESCRIBE-INTERACTIVE

Cleanup Issue `DELETE-NONEXISTENT-FILE`

Category: CHANGE
References: DELETE-FILE (p. 424)

Problem Description

An implementation determines whether an attempt to delete a nonexistent file is considerd to be successful.

Proposal (RETURN-VALUE)

DELETE-FILE can currently return a non-nil value in the case of success, or signal an error in the case of failure. The proposed change is that DELETE-FILE return a non-nil value when the file exists and is successfully deleted, nil when the file doesn't exist, and signals an error otherwise.

Rationale

This change allows users to portably depend on a return value when DELETE-FILE is executed on a nonexistent file.

Current Practice

Adoption Cost

Minimal.

Benefits

This change will assist users in writing portable code.

Conversion Cost