Avoid creating a case directory until all input options are validated.

[quantheory]

The create_newcase command (and other scripts, e.g. create_test) should not create directories or write any files until first validating user-specified options. If someone forgets to add the -compset option, for instance, the directory is created, but the command fails, meaning that you have to go wipe it before trying again.

[douglasjacobsen]

Alternatively, you could consider adding a --force options to create_newcase which will force the creation of the new case in the location you specified (could rm -rf the case before creating it, just to make sure nothing weird is left there).

[quantheory]

@douglasjacobsen

This is admittedly a very minor issue, but I hit this a lot because I make a lot of typos and then forget that I have to remove the case directory afterward. I don't think that we want --force. If you don't use --force habitually, it doesn't add much convenience, since it's not much harder to remember to rm -rf by hand. If you do use --force habitually, it seems far too easy to make a mistake and blow away a case (or any other directory) that you want to keep.

Most command-line tools that I use on a regular basis check for valid options before doing anything (and create_newcase already has some checks, they just aren't complete). I think it would be better if we can make sure that all the required options are provided, and the grid/compset/machine/whatever are valid values, before starting to copy things into a case directory.

[rljacob]

Fixed in new python version.