Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!mks!wheels From: wheels@mks.UUCP (Gerry Wheeler) Newsgroups: comp.os.minix Subject: Re: rmdir has become blind Summary: still looking Keywords: rmdir says "xx: does not exist" Message-ID: <586@mks.UUCP> Date: 30 Nov 88 14:41:06 GMT References: <579@mks.UUCP> <474@hvrunix.UUCP> Organization: Mortice Kern Systems, Waterloo, Ont. Lines: 38 In article <579@mks.UUCP>, wheels@mks.UUCP I wrote: > I can see the directory with ls -l, but if I try rmdir foo, I get an > error message from rmdir saying foo does not exist. In article <474@hvrunix.UUCP>, wpohl@hvrunix.UUCP (Walter E. Pohl) writes: > I had this problem once or twice on Minix PC. I was able solve > the problem by checking the file system. Thanks to all the people who have emailed and posted possible solutions to this. I still haven't figured it out. Some suggested that rmdir needed to be setuid to root, and it is. In addition, I was logged in as root when these problems happened. Some suggested there might be a non-printable character in the file name, but there isn't. Last night I had a couple of minutes to play, so I did this: $ cd /tmp $ mkdir foo $ rmdir foo rmdir: cannot delete "foo" This behaviour is different from before, but still irritating. I'll keep digging. Keep those cards and letters coming in. Oh, one way I have found to violently dislodge a directory is to run cc and tell it to use as output a name which is an unwanted directory. It eventually gives an error message that the file already exists, but in the process it deletes it. I then run fsck to fix the file system. In this case, it does what I want. I'm not sure this behaviour is normally desireable, however. Be careful when you call cc. -- Gerry Wheeler Phone: (519)884-2251 Mortice Kern Systems Inc. UUCP: uunet!watmath!mks!wheels 35 King St. North BIX: join mks Waterloo, Ontario N2J 2W9 CompuServe: 73260,1043