Valid use cases for at-sign in php

Question

The at sign is used to hide error messages. As far as I see, there is absolutely no use case or excuse for using it.

1. You can hide errors in production by changing

Answer 1

As with all tools available (both in programming and outside of it), everything has a legitimate use case.

The first example that comes to mind for the error suppression operator would be something like

if (!@unlink($file)) {
    // I am already handling the error. I don't care what caused it.
    // Even NOT handling this case at all could be a legitimate reaction
    // depending on circumstances.
}