File::Path::rmtree quirks

[Andrew Pimlott <andrew@pimlott.ne.mediaone.net>]

Using the File::Path module that comes with 5.005, I found some
bothersome behaviors in rmtree.  It has failure modes that are different
from rm -r in surprising ways.  Consequently, I think it's bad to
suggest it as a replacement for rm -r.

With $safe off, it attempts chmods that may be unnecessary, and prints
noisy warnings if they fail.

With $safe on, it silently ignores unwritable files, then complains when
parent directories aren't empty.

It attempts to restore permissions, complaining when it fails, even if
$safe is not true.

It will fail on files called "$", even where this does not have special
meaning.

Sorry I can't fix all this, but the messy system-dependent stuff is
daunting, and I decided not to use File::Path due to the problems.

rmtree is useful for many things, and in some cases may succeed where rm
fails, I just think that it must be documented that it may also fail in
surprising ways where rm succeeds.

Andrew

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