add another command line argument to allow users to only simulate a delete (i.e. show what items would be deleted). This is a handy sanity checker.

cms/djangoapps/contentstore/management/commands/delete_course.py

@@ -21,18 +21,26 @@ class Command(BaseCommand):
 '''Delete a MongoDB backed course'''
 
     def handle(self, *args, **options):
-        if len(args) != 1:
-            raise CommandError("delete_course requires one argument: <location>")
+        if len(args) != 1 and len(args) != 2:
+            raise CommandError("delete_course requires one argument: <location> |commit|")
 
         loc_str = args[0]
 
+        commit = False
+        if len(args) == 2:
+          commit = args[1] == 'commit'
+
+        if commit:
+          print 'Actually going to delete the course from DB....'
+
         ms = modulestore('direct')
         cs = contentstore()
 
         if query_yes_no("Deleting course {0}. Confirm?".format(loc_str), default="no"):
           if query_yes_no("Are you sure. This action cannot be undone!", default="no"):
             loc = CourseDescriptor.id_to_location(loc_str)
-            if delete_course(ms, cs, loc) == True:
+            if delete_course(ms, cs, loc, commit) == True:
               print 'removing User permissions from course....'
               # in the django layer, we need to remove all the user permissions groups associated with this course
-              _delete_course_group(loc)            
+              if commit:
+                _delete_course_group(loc)