We can set this as an optional package in 'high-level.mk' so if a user wants they can activate it. Perl is installed within 'basic.mk', so it will be easy to add as a high-level package.

The program safe-rm [1] is a perl script which acts as a front end to rm to reduce the chance of catastrophic results of using recursive, forced remove commands. This could provide an alternative to set -u (see task 15996 [2]) for this purpose.

The disadvantage is that this depends on perl, adding in an extra dependence. Installing as a step after the installation of perl might be reasonable.

Another disadvantage is that users of the safe-rm package might not realise that the rm command has been symlinked to the safe-rm front-end script, and may not learn the danger of true rm.

In version 0.12-2+deb9u1, the script itself is only 228 lines, so should not be too difficult to check. The script checks a default list of directories which safe-rm will refuse to recursively delete, such as /, /home, /bin, /boot, /usr/bin. For root-protected directories, this is (in principle) irrelevant for Maneage. However, /home is relevant.

I think that this is worth considering, but more arguments and for and against are needed.

[1] https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/safe-rm
[2] https://savannah.nongnu.org/task/index.php?15996