Feature request: add a high-level @fs.remove_all

[Yoorkin]

Motivation

AI-generated CLI programs frequently need idempotent cleanup of a path whose current state is not important. Without a high-level API, they often generate a helper like this:

async fn remove_path_if_present(path : @path.Path) -> Unit {
  let path_string = path.to_string()
  let kind = @fs.kind(path_string, follow_symlink=false) catch {
    @os_error.OSError(_) as error if error.is_ENOENT() => return
    error => raise error
  }
  if kind is Directory {
    @fs.rmdir(path_string, recursive=true)
  } else {
    @fs.remove(path_string)
  }
}

The existing low-level operations are useful, but this common cleanup operation currently has to:

1. inspect whether the path is a directory;
2. choose between @fs.remove and @fs.rmdir(recursive=true);
3. catch ENOENT explicitly; and
4. introduce a check-then-remove race that a library implementation may be better positioned to avoid or minimize.

Requested behavior

Please consider adding a high-level @fs.remove_all operation with these semantics:

• accept a file, symbolic link, or directory without requiring the caller to distinguish them;
• recursively remove a directory, while removing a symbolic link itself rather than following it;
• treat a missing path as a successful no-op; and
• continue to report real errors such as permission failures.

The exact missing-path API is open to design. Two possible shapes are:

pub async fn remove_all(path : StringView) -> Unit

with idempotent behavior built in, or:

pub async fn remove_all(
  path : StringView,
  missing_ok? : Bool = true,
) -> Unit

if callers should be able to request an error for a missing path. The parameter name and default would need further discussion.

Prior art

Several standard libraries provide this higher-level operation:

• Go os.RemoveAll removes a file or directory tree and returns nil when the path does not exist.
• Node.js fs.rm with { recursive: true, force: true } removes files or directories and ignores a missing path.
• C++17 std::filesystem::remove_all removes a file or directory tree and returns 0 when the path does not exist.
• Elixir File.rm_rf removes files or directories recursively and returns {:ok, []} for a missing path.
• Ruby FileUtils.rm_rf accepts files or directories and does not fail for a missing path, although its force semantics suppress a broader class of errors.

A high-level API in @fs would make the common intent explicit, reduce repetitive error handling, and give generated CLI code a safer default primitive.