Skip to content

Claude Sonnet 5.5 (effort default (no --effort flag) · thinking on) on Write a robust backup rotation script (dry-run, spaces, exit codes, safe deletion)

AClaude Sonnet 5.5default · thinking on · Claude Code 2.1.299 (headless -p) · cloud · 2026-10-16 · by @bobsiopener

Trust 80%Fully autonomoussuccess · first try
Estimated cost
$0.09
Wall time
30s
Human step-ins
0
Outcome
Pass

Compare with other models on this task →

Summary

Exact prompt

# Task: write a robust backup-rotation shell script Write `rotate.sh` (bash, coreutils + tar/gzip only) implementing: ``` rotate.sh [--keep N] [--dry-run] SRC_DIR DEST_DIR ``` - Creates `DEST_DIR/backup-YYYYMMDD-HHMMSS.tar.gz` containing SRC_DIR's contents (paths inside the archive relative to SRC_DIR, i.e. `./file`), excluding any `*.tmp` files and any directory named `.cache` (at any depth). Use the timestamp from env `BACKUP_NOW` (format `YYYYMMDD-HHMMSS`) if set, else the current UTC time. Creates DEST_DIR if missing. - Then keeps only the N newest backups (default 5, ordered by the timestamp in the filename), deleting older ones. Never delete files in DEST_DIR that don't match `backup-????????-??????.tar.gz`. - `--dry-run`: change nothing on disk; print one line per action: `CREATE <path>` and `DELETE <path>`. - Must handle file/dir names with spaces, newlines are not required. - Exit codes: 0 ok; 2 usage error (unknown option, missing args, N not a positive integer); 3 SRC_DIR does not exist. Errors go to stderr. - `rotate.sh --help` prints usage to stdout and exits 0. Make it executable. No network.

15 scenario checks incl. names with spaces, excluded .cache/*.tmp, dry-run with no side effects, only deleting pattern-matching files, exact exit codes. Original benchmark task written for usecaserank.com (not based on a specific public post). Headless, offline run on a reproducible fixture. Each run's notes say how its cost was measured (estimates are marked).

Success criteria: 1. 15 scenario checks in a private temp dir, all must pass: 2. --help exits 0; no args, --keep 0, and an unknown option each exit 2; missing SRC exits 3. 3. Archive created as backup-<BACKUP_NOW>.tar.gz; it contains './sub dir/my file.txt' and './a/keep.log' and no *.tmp or .cache entries. 4. --dry-run --keep 3 changes nothing on disk, prints the exact CREATE line and exactly 5 DELETE lines. 5. Real run with --keep 3 leaves exactly the 3 newest pattern-matching backups. 6. Non-matching files (notes.txt, 'backup-old copy.tar.gz') are never deleted. 7. Destination path with a space works; without BACKUP_NOW a correctly-named timestamped archive is created.

Setup notes: Use Case Scout batch 4 case d07-bash-backup-rotation (offline fixture). Prepared with batch4/prepare.sh; hidden key/tests kept outside the agent's work dir. Prompt = TASK.md verbatim. Scored with the scout's scorer: `bash score.sh WORKDIR`. Tools: Read/Write/Edit/Glob/Grep/Bash, web disabled. Single run, no retries. Claude Code's own reported cost for claude-sonnet-5.5: $0.087036. Score: 15/15. Cost is an ESTIMATE: measured tokens x pricing.json list price (Claude Pro subscription, nothing billed); input_tokens include cache reads and writes. Single run.

Estimated cost List-price estimate; not actually billed.

Metrics

Estimated cost
$0.09
Wall time
30s
Human step-ins
0
Turns
3
Model usage
ModelInput tokOutput tokCost
AClaude Sonnet 5.5anthropic/claude-sonnet-5.5effort default (no --effort flag) · thinking on40,8894,392$0.09

Reproduce this run

  1. Use the use case prompt on the use case page.
  2. Same setup: Claude Sonnet 5.5 (anthropic/claude-sonnet-5.5, effort default (no --effort flag) · thinking on) via Claude Code 2.1.299 (headless -p), cloud.
  3. It counts as a success only if it meets every success criterion: 1. 15 scenario checks in a private temp dir, all must pass: 2. --help exits 0; no args, --keep 0, and an unknown option each exit 2; missing SRC exits 3. 3. Archive created as backup-<BACKUP_NOW>.tar.gz; it contains './sub dir/my file.txt' and './a/keep.log' and no *.tmp or .cache entries. 4. --dry-run --keep 3 changes nothing on disk, prints the exact CREATE line and exactly 5 DELETE lines. 5. Real run with --keep 3 leaves exactly the 3 newest pattern-matching backups. 6. Non-matching files (notes.txt, 'backup-old copy.tar.gz') are never deleted. 7. Destination path with a space works; without BACKUP_NOW a correctly-named timestamped archive is created.
  4. Log model, tokens, wall time, human step-ins and the evidence log, then submit it as a reproduction. A different model? Submit a head-to-head rerun.

How runs are scored: Methodology.

Was this useful?

⇄ Rerun on another model

Automated checks

Trust 80% comes from these checks (how Trust % works).

Evidence log
[
 {
  "duration_api_ms": 29272,
  "stop_reason": "end_turn",
  "session_id": "[REDACTED]",
  "total_cost_usd": 0.087036,
  "usage": {
   "input_tokens": 4,
   "cache_creation_input_tokens": 10005,
   "cache_read_input_tokens": 30880,
   "output_tokens": 4392,
   "output_tokens_details": {
    "thinking_tokens": 1080
   },
   "server_tool_use": {
    "web_search_requests": 0,
    "web_fetch_requests": 0
   },
   "service_tier": "standard",
   "cache_creation": {
    "ephemeral_1h_input_tokens": 10005,
    "ephemeral_5m_input_tokens": 0
   },
   "inference_geo": "global",
   "iterations": [
    {
     "input_tokens": 2,
     "output_tokens": 661,
     "cache_read_input_tokens": 18341,
     "cache_creation_input_tokens": 4203,
     "cache_creation": {
      "ephemeral_5m_input_tokens": 0,
      "ephemeral_1h_input_tokens": 4203
     },
     "type": "message"
    }
   ],
   "speed": "standard",
   "fallback_credit": null
  },
  "modelUsage": {
   "claude-sonnet-5-5": {
    "inputTokens": 4,
    "outputTokens": 4392,
    "cacheReadInputTokens": 30880,
    "cacheCreationInputTokens": 10005,
    "webSearchRequests": 0,
    "costUSD": 0.087036,
    "contextWindow": 1000000,
    "maxOutputTokens": 128000,
    "thinkingTokens": 1080,
    "canonicalModel": "claude-sonnet-5-5",
    "provider": "firstParty",
    "costBasis": "list"
   }
  },
  "permission_denials": [],
  "terminal_reason": "completed",
  "fast_mode_state": "off",
  "fast_mode_disabled_reason": "sdk_opt_in_required",
  "subagent_stats": {
   "spawned": 0,
   "requested": {
    "background": 0,
    "foreground": 0,
    "unset": 0
   },
   "started_in_background": 0,
   "max_depth": 0,
   "spawned_by_subagents": 0,
   "completed": 0,
   "failed": 0,
   "killed": {
    "parent": 0,
    "user": 0,
    "system": 0
   },
   "refused": {
    "depth_limit": 0,
    "concurrency_limit": 0,
    "budget": 0
   },
   "by_type": {}
  },
  "safety_stops": 0,
  "is_error": false,
  "num_turns": 3,
  "subtype": "success",
  "api_error_status": null,
  "result": "I wrote `rotate.sh` in the working directory and made it executable. I ran it against a scratch directory, and the behaviour matched the spec in every case I tried. I only tested one real-timestamp dry run, and `--keep=N` was not tested.\n\n- **Rotation:** four backups with `--keep 3` left the three newest, and `other.txt` in `DEST_DIR` was untouched. A dry run with `--keep 2` printed one `CREATE` and two `DELETE` lines and changed nothing.\n- **Archive contents:** a source tree with spaces in names, a `*.tmp` file and `.cache` directories at two depths archived as `./a b/f 1` and `./keep` only, with none of the excluded items.\n- **Exit codes:** `--keep 0` and an unknown option exited 2, and a missing source directory exited 3. `--help` printed usage and exited 0.\n\nBehaviours to know about:\n- **Date stamp:** an invalid `BACKUP_NOW` is treated as a usage error (exit 2).\n- **Backup name match:** retention only counts and deletes names where the timestamp parts are digits. A file like `backup-aaaaaaaa-bbbbbb.tar.gz` is never deleted, which is slightly stricter than the literal `?` pattern.\n- **Same-name backup:** if a backup with the same name already exists, it is overwritten.\n- **Older-than-keep stamp:** if `BACKUP_NOW` is older than the kept backups, the new archive is created and then deleted straight away. A dry run shows both lines.\n- **Exclusion scope:** `*.tmp` also excludes any directory whose name ends in `.tmp`.\n- **Safe writes:** the archive is written to a temporary file in `DEST_DIR` and renamed into place, so a failed run leaves no partial backup.\n- **Nested `DEST_DIR`:** if `DEST_DIR` is inside `SRC_DIR`, it is excluded from the archive.",
  "ttft_ms": 10271,
  "type": "result",
  "duration_ms": 29663,
  "uuid": "[REDACTED]",
  "ttft_stream_ms": 1090,
  "time_to_request_ms": 223,
  "first_content_frame_ms": 1091,
  "queued_turn_count": 0,
  "result_index": 0
 }
]

Get new runs and ranking changes weekly