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