[Scons-users] --dry-run can still remove files - is this a bug?

[chris warth]

Despite using the "No execute" options (-n, --just-print, --dry-run,
--recon), scons can delete files in the build directory. --dry-run
should not modify the filesystem - that's the point of having a
--dry-run option.
Note that this behavior can be worked-around by setting 'duplicate=0'
in the call to env.VariantDir(), but that's not really fixing
--dry-run.
To reproduce (on ubuntu linux), copy the attached file to SConstruct.error

$ mkdir output
$ >output/source.txt

$ ~/scons/bin/scons --dry-run --debug=duplicate -f SConstruct.error
scons: Reading SConscript files ...
scons: done reading SConscript files.
scons: Building targets ...
dup: no src for output/source.txt, unlinking old variant copy
scons: building associated VariantDir targets: output
scons: *** [output/target.txt] Source `output/source.txt' not found,
needed by target `output/target.txt'.
scons: building terminated because of errors.


$ ~/scons/bin/scons --version
SCons by Steven Knight et al.:
        script: v2.3.6.rel_2.3.5:3347:d31d5a4e74b6[MODIFIED],
2015/07/31 14:36:10, by bdbaddog on hpmicrodog
        engine: v2.3.6.rel_2.3.5:3347:d31d5a4e74b6[MODIFIED],
2015/07/31 14:36:10, by bdbaddog on hpmicrodog
        engine path: ['/home/cwarth/scons/lib/scons-2.3.6/SCons']
Copyright (c) 2001 - 2015 The SCons Foundation
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