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Full Discussion: Really weird delete problem
Top Forums UNIX for Advanced & Expert Users Really weird delete problem Post 302261014 by Perderabo on Saturday 22nd of November 2008 10:19:05 PM
Old 11-22-2008
Remember that a directory is basicly a table with each entry being a name and an inode. In the usual case of a mysteriously undeletable file the name is some very difficult-to-type string of characters. So we suggest some counter-measure that avoids needing to type the name, such as
cd /directory
rm -i *
There is nothing actually wrong in these cases, we just have a very odd filename.

But notice this:
Code:
root@ubuntu:/home/luser/.local/share/Trash/files/junk# ls -l
ls: cannot access TRUNK_: No such file or directory
ls: cannot access 2006_output.mv: No such file or directory
total 0
?????????? ? ? ? ?                ? 2006_output.m?v
?????????? ? ? ? ?                ? TRUNK_

No odd filename can yield this result. Because the OP succeeded in cd'ing to this directory, he should also have permission to stat(2) the files. A simple "ls -l" should bypass the name problem just a a simple "rm -i *" would. But stat(2) appears to be failing. My guess is that the inode numbers are pointing to unallocated inodes.

In theory, "fsck -f" should fix this, and that is what I would recommend as a start. However, I have not yet encountered this problem in Linux, so I have never tried this myself.
 

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LEARN ABOUT HPUX

delete_directory

delete directory(1m)													      delete directory(1m)

NAME

       delete directory - Deletes a directory

SYNOPSIS

       cdscp delete directory directory-name

ARGUMENTS

       The full name of the directory.

DESCRIPTION

       The  delete  directory  command	deletes a directory.  The directory cannot contain any object entries, soft links, or child pointers.  The
       master replica must be the only remaining replica in the cell.  Use the delete replica command if you need to remove read-only replicas.

   Privilege Required
       You must have delete permission to the directory and write permission to the clearinghouse that stores the master replica of the directory.
       The  server  principal  needs  administer  permission  to the parent directory or delete permission to the child pointer that points to the
       directory you intend to delete.

NOTE

       This command is replaced at Revision 1.1 by the dcecp command and may not be provided in future releases of DCE.

EXAMPLE

       The following command deletes the directory /.:/eng from the namespace: cdscp> delete directory /.:/eng

RELATED INFORMATION

       Commands: create directory(1m), delete replica(1m), list directory(1m), set directory(1m), set directory to skulk(1m), show directory(1m)

															      delete directory(1m)
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