feat(st2client): allow delete commands to accept multiple ids

CHANGELOG.rst

@@ -37,6 +37,7 @@ Changed
 
 Added
 ~~~~~
+* ``st2 <resource> delete`` now accepts multiple ids, e.g. ``st2 action-alias delete id1 id2 id3``. Resources which are not found are reported and the command exits with a non-zero return code. #4729
 * added raw_string type to allow template strings to pass through variable processing (by @guzzijones12@gmail.com) #6351
 
 3.9.0 - October 10, 2025

st2client/st2client/commands/action.py

@@ -291,21 +291,10 @@ def __init__(self, resource, *args, **kwargs):
             help="Remove action files from disk.",
         )
 
-    @add_auth_token_to_kwargs_from_cli
-    def run(self, args, **kwargs):
-        resource_id = getattr(args, self.pk_argument_name, None)
+    def delete_resource(self, args, resource_id, **kwargs):
         instance = self.get_resource(resource_id, **kwargs)
         remove_files = args.remove_files
         self.manager.delete_action(instance, remove_files, **kwargs)
-        print('Resource with id "%s" has been successfully deleted.' % (resource_id))
-
-    def run_and_print(self, args, **kwargs):
-        resource_id = getattr(args, self.pk_argument_name)
-
-        try:
-            self.run(args, **kwargs)
-        except ResourceNotFoundError:
-            self.print_not_found(resource_id)
 
 
 class ActionCloneCommand(resource.ContentPackResourceCloneCommand):

st2client/st2client/commands/keyvalue.py

@@ -336,9 +336,7 @@ def __init__(self, resource, *args, **kwargs):
             help="User for user scoped items (admin only).",
         )
 
-    @resource.add_auth_token_to_kwargs_from_cli
-    def run(self, args, **kwargs):
-        resource_id = getattr(args, self.pk_argument_name, None)
+    def delete_resource(self, args, resource_id, **kwargs):
         scope = getattr(args, "scope", DEFAULT_CUD_SCOPE)
         kwargs["params"] = {}
         kwargs["params"]["scope"] = scope

st2client/st2client/commands/resource.py

@@ -731,26 +731,70 @@ def __init__(self, resource, *args, **kwargs):
             resource=resource, argument=self.pk_argument_name
         )
 
-        self.parser.add_argument(argument, metavar=metavar, help=help)
+        self.parser.add_argument(argument, metavar=metavar, nargs="+", help=help)
 
-    @add_auth_token_to_kwargs_from_cli
-    def run(self, args, **kwargs):
-        resource_id = getattr(args, self.pk_argument_name, None)
+    def delete_resource(self, args, resource_id, **kwargs):
+        """
+        Delete a single resource.
+
+        Subclasses can override this method to customize how an individual resource is
+        deleted.
+        """
         instance = self.get_resource(resource_id, **kwargs)
+
+        if not instance:
+            raise ResourceNotFoundError(
+                'Resource with id "%s" doesn\'t exist.' % (resource_id)
+            )
+
         self.manager.delete(instance, **kwargs)
 
+    @add_auth_token_to_kwargs_from_cli
+    def run(self, args, **kwargs):
+        resource_ids = getattr(args, self.pk_argument_name, None) or []
+        more_than_one_resource = len(resource_ids) > 1
+
+        deleted_ids = []
+        not_found_ids = []
+
+        for resource_id in resource_ids:
+            try:
+                self.delete_resource(args, resource_id, **kwargs)
+            except ResourceNotFoundError:
+                if not more_than_one_resource:
+                    # For backward compatibility reasons and to comply with common "delete one"
+                    # behavior, we only fail if a single resource is requested
+                    raise
+
+                self.print_not_found(resource_id)
+                not_found_ids.append(resource_id)
+                continue
+
+            deleted_ids.append(resource_id)
+
+        return deleted_ids, not_found_ids
+
     def run_and_print(self, args, **kwargs):
-        resource_id = getattr(args, self.pk_argument_name, None)
+        resource_ids = getattr(args, self.pk_argument_name, None) or []
 
         try:
-            self.run(args, **kwargs)
-            print(
-                'Resource with id "%s" has been successfully deleted.' % (resource_id)
-            )
+            deleted_ids, not_found_ids = self.run(args, **kwargs)
         except ResourceNotFoundError:
+            resource_id = resource_ids[0]
             self.print_not_found(resource_id)
             raise OperationFailureException("Resource %s not found." % resource_id)
 
+        for resource_id in deleted_ids:
+            print(
+                'Resource with id "%s" has been successfully deleted.' % (resource_id)
+            )
+
+        if not_found_ids:
+            raise OperationFailureException(
+                "Failed to delete %s resource(s): %s."
+                % (len(not_found_ids), ", ".join(not_found_ids))
+            )
+
 
 class ContentPackResourceDeleteCommand(ResourceDeleteCommand):
     """

st2client/tests/unit/test_commands.py

@@ -33,6 +33,7 @@
 from st2client.utils import httpclient
 from st2client.commands import resource
 from st2client.commands.resource import ResourceViewCommand
+from st2client.exceptions.operations import OperationFailureException
 
 __all__ = ["TestResourceCommand", "ResourceViewCommandTestCase"]
 
@@ -103,6 +104,54 @@ def test_all_resources_get_multi(self):
             self.assertTrue('%s "id3" is not found.' % (display_name) in stdout)
             self._reset_output_streams()
 
+    @mock.patch.object(
+        httpclient.HTTPClient,
+        "get",
+        mock.MagicMock(
+            return_value=base.FakeResponse(json.dumps({}), 404, "NOT FOUND")
+        ),
+    )
+    def test_all_resources_delete_multi(self):
+        # Resources which support the delete command.
+        resources = [
+            ("action", models.Action),
+            ("action-alias", models.ActionAlias),
+            ("rule", models.Rule),
+            ("key", models.KeyValuePair),
+            ("trigger", models.TriggerType),
+            ("apikey", models.ApiKey),
+            ("policy", models.Policy),
+        ]
+
+        # 1. st2 <resource> delete <id 1> ... <id n> notation should attempt to delete every
+        # provided id, report every id which was not found and return non-zero.
+        for command_name, resource_ in resources:
+            display_name = resource_.get_display_name()
+
+            self._reset_output_streams()
+            return_code = self.shell.run([command_name, "delete", "id1", "id2", "id3"])
+            self.assertEqual(return_code, 2)
+
+            stdout = self.stdout.getvalue()
+
+            for resource_id in ["id1", "id2", "id3"]:
+                self.assertTrue(
+                    '%s "%s" is not found.' % (display_name, resource_id) in stdout
+                )
+            self._reset_output_streams()
+
+        # 2. Single id delete which is not found should still return non-zero.
+        for command_name, resource_ in resources:
+            display_name = resource_.get_display_name()
+
+            self._reset_output_streams()
+            return_code = self.shell.run([command_name, "delete", "id3"])
+            self.assertEqual(return_code, 2)
+
+            stdout = self.stdout.getvalue()
+            self.assertTrue('%s "id3" is not found.' % (display_name) in stdout)
+            self._reset_output_streams()
+
 
 class TestResourceCommand(unittest.TestCase):
     def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
@@ -387,6 +436,67 @@ def test_command_delete_failed(self):
         args = self.parser.parse_args(["fakeresource", "delete", "cba"])
         self.assertRaises(Exception, self.branch.commands["delete"].run, args)
 
+    @mock.patch.object(
+        models.ResourceManager,
+        "get_by_name",
+        mock.MagicMock(return_value=base.FakeResource(**base.RESOURCES[0])),
+    )
+    @mock.patch.object(
+        httpclient.HTTPClient,
+        "delete",
+        mock.MagicMock(return_value=base.FakeResponse("", 204, "NO CONTENT")),
+    )
+    def test_command_delete_multiple(self):
+        args = self.parser.parse_args(["fakeresource", "delete", "abc", "def"])
+        self.assertEqual(args.func, self.branch.commands["delete"].run_and_print)
+        deleted_ids, not_found_ids = self.branch.commands["delete"].run(args)
+        self.assertEqual(deleted_ids, ["abc", "def"])
+        self.assertEqual(not_found_ids, [])
+        self.assertEqual(httpclient.HTTPClient.delete.call_count, 2)
+
+    @mock.patch.object(
+        models.ResourceManager,
+        "get_by_name",
+        mock.MagicMock(side_effect=[base.FakeResource(**base.RESOURCES[0]), None]),
+    )
+    @mock.patch.object(
+        models.ResourceManager, "get_by_id", mock.MagicMock(return_value=None)
+    )
+    @mock.patch.object(
+        httpclient.HTTPClient,
+        "delete",
+        mock.MagicMock(return_value=base.FakeResponse("", 204, "NO CONTENT")),
+    )
+    def test_command_delete_multiple_partial_failure(self):
+        # Deleting multiple resources should continue with the remaining resources when one
+        # of the resources is not found.
+        args = self.parser.parse_args(["fakeresource", "delete", "abc", "def"])
+        deleted_ids, not_found_ids = self.branch.commands["delete"].run(args)
+        self.assertEqual(deleted_ids, ["abc"])
+        self.assertEqual(not_found_ids, ["def"])
+        self.assertEqual(httpclient.HTTPClient.delete.call_count, 1)
+
+    @mock.patch.object(
+        models.ResourceManager, "get_by_name", mock.MagicMock(return_value=None)
+    )
+    @mock.patch.object(
+        models.ResourceManager, "get_by_id", mock.MagicMock(return_value=None)
+    )
+    def test_command_delete_multiple_not_found(self):
+        args = self.parser.parse_args(["fakeresource", "delete", "abc", "def"])
+
+        deleted_ids, not_found_ids = self.branch.commands["delete"].run(args)
+        self.assertEqual(deleted_ids, [])
+        self.assertEqual(not_found_ids, ["abc", "def"])
+
+        # When some of the resources could not be deleted, the command should fail with a
+        # non-zero exit code.
+        self.assertRaises(
+            OperationFailureException,
+            self.branch.commands["delete"].run_and_print,
+            args,
+        )
+
     @mock.patch.object(
         models.ResourceManager,
         "get_by_id",