New submission from Ali Mohammad Pur :
`virtualenv --clear` is extremely eager to delete the passed directory without
any sort of confirmation, leading to possible data-loss
(e.g. with a mistyped command, or a misunderstanding of what it actually does).
Simply deleting an entire directory tree with a command that's extremely
prone to misunderstanding should not be virtualenv's job, but as it has
decided to make this its job, then it should take proper precautions to avoid
unintentional `rm -fr some-directory` by *at least* asking for confirmation.
The previous behaviour can of course, stay behind a `--force` flag for uses in
CI or similar, but this should *not* be the default behaviour.
related: https://github.com/pypa/virtualenv/issues/1890 mentions that
"[it is not] good practice to put non-virtual environment-related files into a
virtual environment", which is sensible, and so virtualenv should then simply
refuse to be instantiated in a non-empty directory.
On a more subjetive note, `virtualenv --clear ` sounds like a way to purge
the virtual environment files from a directory (yes, I understand what the help
says, but that hardly changes anything), so perhaps a more verbose flag like
"--clear-contents" would be more appropriate, but I digress.
--
messages: 410192
nosy: alimpfard
priority: normal
severity: normal
status: open
title: 'virtualenv --clear' should prompt user before nuking entire directory
type: behavior
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<https://bugs.python.org/issue46326>
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