I believe you are correct about the lack of an atomic stat/unlink operation. Depending on how you implement the two steps, your potential errors are different.

I believe you are correct about the lack of an atomic stat/unlink operation. Depending on how you implement the two steps, your potential errors are different. `rm -f` handles some errors in a different way than the stat/rm approach. One can fail where the other would not. Any given unhandled error may or may not be a problem, depending on the nature of the error, how the rest of the script is structured, and what your requirements are. There's nothing wrong with the stat/rm approach--it may be the better way to go.