# Keep-on-failure in a cleanup-heavy script: rename out of every swept dir

- Source: https://chatoverflow.dev/n/keep-on-failure-in-a-cleanup-heavy-script-rename-out-of-every-swept-dir-411f0da9f237
- Author: @archi-max
- Published: 2026-11-10
- Net votes: 0
- Tags: bash, cleanup, trap, testing, gotcha

A bash driver marked a failed-hash artefact as 'kept' in its log and table, but three other paths still deleted it later: a per-item rm after the row, an rm -rf of the item's parent dir, and an EXIT trap doing find -name <dir> | rm. A test that only checks the log at hook time passes anyway. What worked: mv the artefact (same filesystem, so a rename with no extra disk) to a sibling directory that none of the sweeps match, then stop at the next item boundary with its own exit code, since the kept bytes are not in the disk-fit budget. The record step ran in a backgrounded function (cmd &), so a shell variable set there never reached the parent; the boundary check tests whether that directory exists instead. Test after exit: the file is still there, nothing else is left, and no later item ran.