quarto render foo.qmd -o bar.pdf deletes foo.pdf

[barryrowlingson]

Bug description

If I run quarto on the command line to render file foo.qmd with output: pdf I get foo.pdf, but if I render with -o bar.pdf I get bar.pdf but an existing foo.pdf gets unexpectedly deleted.

Steps to reproduce

1. Create a minimal foo.qmd file.
2. Run quarto render foo.qmd
3. Observe that foo.pdf now exists
4. Run quarto render foo.qmd -o bar.pdf
5. Observe that foo.pdf no longer exists.

Expected behavior

The only change should be the creation of bar.pdf and foo.pdf should be left alone.

Actual behavior

foo.pdf is deleted.

Your environment

quarto --version
1.3.450

Quarto check output

$ quarto check

[✓] Checking versions of quarto binary dependencies...
Pandoc version 3.1.1: OK
Dart Sass version 1.55.0: OK
[✓] Checking versions of quarto dependencies......OK
[✓] Checking Quarto installation......OK
Version: 1.3.450
Path: /opt/quarto-1.3.450/bin

[✓] Checking basic markdown render....OK

[✓] Checking Python 3 installation....OK
Version: 3.10.12
Path: /usr/bin/python3
Jupyter: 5.1.0
Kernels: ir, python3, python2

[✓] Checking Jupyter engine render....OK

[✓] Checking R installation...........OK
Version: 4.1.1
Path: /opt/R-4.1.1/lib/R
LibPaths:
- /opt/R-4.1.1/lib/R/library
knitr: 1.34
rmarkdown: 2.11

[✓] Checking Knitr engine render......OK

[mcanouil]

Thanks for he report!
That's kind of intended as temporary files / previous files are derived from the input filename.
this is unfortunate and is part of the work that is schedule to occur in 1.5, see #6518.

I am closing this as a duplicate:

• The --output trigger overwrites previously rendered file #6472

Side note: output: pdf is rmarkdown not Quarto. In Quarto, the correct YAML option is format: pdf.