Undeletable file Post: 303036985

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Operating Systems OS X (Apple) Undeletable file Post 303036985 by hicksd8 on Friday 19th of July 2019 11:33:44 AM

07-19-2019

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Like MadeInGermany, I'm not a MAC user either so I'm now going to talk generic Unix/Linux only. You will need a MAC expert to guide you if you want to use anything I'm going to say now.

Many Unix/Linux OS's implement an often undocumented command called clri which will destroy an inode (by writing zeros to it). A nuclear option. A quick search on Google tells me that MacOS implements this command too. I also see that it implements fsck_hfs.

Therefore my final nuclear option on an OS I'm expert on would be:
1. Ensure that you have just completed a backup of the filesystem (and perhaps preferably the whole system) and know how to restore if it goes wrong. Keep users off afterwards.
2. ls -li has given you the inode number of zombie so run clri to nuke it. BE CAREFUL to specify the correct filesystem on the command line if you have more than one filesystem otherwise you could zap the wrong inode. I cannot give you the MacOS syntax. Try man clri to see if it's offically documented.
3. Once the inode is nuked go into single user mode and run fsck_hfs. The allocated blocks for zombie should show as "missing blocks" and the utility should ask your okay to fix the superblock.

Now I repeat, this is a generic suggestion and you should await input from a MacOS expert on here as to whether they think this method is a goer. I take no responsibility whatsoever but it is how I would fix such a problem on some Unix/Linux filesystems.

This will be my last post to this thread because I'm out of my comfort zone.

Last edited by hicksd8; 07-19-2019 at 01:01 PM..

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clri

clri(1M)                                                  System Administration Commands                                                  clri(1M)

NAME

       clri, dcopy - clear inode

SYNOPSIS

       clri [-F FSType] [-V] special i-number

       dcopy [-F FSType] [-V] special i-number

DESCRIPTION

       clri  writes  zeros  on the inodes with the decimal i-number on the file system stored on  special. After  clri, any blocks in the affected
       file show up as missing in an  fsck(1M) of special.

       Read and write permission is required on the specified file system device. The inode becomes allocatable.

       The primary purpose of this routine is to remove a file that for some reason appears in no directory. If it is used to zap  an  inode  that
       does  appear  in  a directory, care should be taken to track down the entry and remove it. Otherwise, when the inode is reallocated to some
       new file, the old entry will still point to that file. At that point, removing the old entry will destroy the new file. The new entry  will
       again point to an unallocated inode, so the whole cycle is likely to be repeated again and again.

       dcopy is a symbolic link to clri.

OPTIONS

       -F FSType       Specify the  FSType on which to operate.
                        The  FSType should either be specified here or be determinable from  /etc/vfstab by matching  special with an entry in the
                       table, or by consulting /etc/default/fs.

       -V              Echo the complete command line, but do not execute the command. The command line is generated  by  using  the  options  and
                       arguments  provided by the user and adding to them information derived from /etc/vfstab. This option should be used to ver-
                       ify and validate the command line.

USAGE

       See largefile(5) for the description of the behavior of clri and dcopy when encountering files greater than or equal to 2 Gbyte  (  2 **31
       bytes).

FILES

       /etc/default/fs         Default local file system type

       /etc/vfstab             List of default parameters for each file system

ATTRIBUTES

       See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:

       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |      ATTRIBUTE TYPE         |      ATTRIBUTE VALUE        |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |Availability                 |SUNWcsu                      |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+

SEE ALSO

       fsck(1M), vfstab(4), attributes(5), largefile(5)

NOTES

       This command might not be supported for all FSTypes.

SunOS 5.10                                                          16 Sep 1996                                                           clri(1M)