Dave Smith wrote:

On Fri, Nov 14, 2003 at 01:25:07AM +1100, blchupin@tpg.com.au wrote:

...

I have a partition (/data1) formatted in reiserfs on the second HD where I store backups of various files.

I just installed SUSE 9 and whether this caused the problem I don't know - and I don't really care so long as I can delete some files.

What the problem is is that I suddenly found files in a directory in /data1 which I cannot delete even as root. The message I get if I try to delete is Permission denied (13). All the files begin with the character '?' and are 0 bytes long.

The files are only visible using mc (Midnight Commander) and are coloured red; they are not visible using ls -la from the command line or using Konqueror.

Trying to delete them from the command line using rm <filename> gives the same error message as in mc, ie Permission denied, while doing rm gives the message of No such file.

Short of reformatting the partition, how may I delete these files? And what the heck are they so that even root cannot touch them?

Have you tried

rm \?<filename>

(without the '<>')?

The shell might be trying to expand the ?.

Also, you don't need permission on the file itself to delete it, but the directory in which it resides. Run an 'ls -ld /data1', and check the permissions. I think that even 'root' can deny permission to itself if it wants to. You may also have mounted the partition read-only, so check your /etc/fstab, and the output of 'mount'.

HTH...

...not really, but I learnt something new :-). rm \?<name> gives the message No such file. rm \<name> gives the message Cannot lstat <name> : Permission denied. I can read/write in all other directories in /data1 and the one being affected by this problem, and everything in it, is owned by me (user), and, of course, /data1 is mounted as rw in fstab. Root has permission to do all things in /data1 -- except delete the bum files :-). Cheers. -- Wagner's music is really not as bad as it sounds.

Felix Miata wrote:

Basil Chupin wrote:

...

...not really, but I learnt something new :-).

...

rm \?<name> gives the message No such file.

...

rm \<name> gives the message Cannot lstat <name> : Permission denied.

...

I can read/write in all other directories in /data1 and the one being affected by this problem, and everything in it, is owned by me (user), and, of course, /data1 is mounted as rw in fstab. Root has permission to do all things in /data1 -- except delete the bum files :-).

What happens when you open mc, point to the them, and hit F8?

The message Permission denied (13) magically materialised in front of me on the screen :-). Cheers. -- Wagner's music is really not as bad as it sounds.

Wow Now I can read, write in my vfat partition that I use to share files between M$ and SuSE. I was looking for a system to change permissions in that partition unsuccesfully. But thanks to this mail. Is working really fine now. --- Krikket wrote: > On Sat, 15 Nov 2003, Basil Chupin wrote:

...

...

Basil Chupin wrote:

...

...not really, but I learnt something new :-).

...

rm \?<name> gives the message No such file.

...

rm \<name> gives the message Cannot lstat <name> : Permission denied.

...

I can read/write in all other directories in /data1 and the one being affected by this problem, and everything in it, is owned by me (user), and, of course, /data1 is mounted as rw in fstab. Root has permission to do all things in /data1 -- except delete the bum files :-).

What happens when you open mc, point to the

Felix Miata wrote: them, and hit F8?

The message Permission denied (13) magically materialised in front of me on the screen :-).

Cheers.

To to the directory in question (using a shell) and type chmod a+w [Directory/file name] to give everyone permission to write to that directory. Substitute a+r for read permissions, and a+x for executable permissions. Change the + to a - sign to remove the permissions. And (IIRC) you can change the a to a g for group permissions and to a u for user permissions.

If you want to change ht permissions of every file in a direvroty type chmod -R a+w <directory name>

Krikket

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Krikket wrote:

On Sat, 15 Nov 2003, Basil Chupin wrote:

...

Felix Miata wrote:

...

Basil Chupin wrote:

...

...not really, but I learnt something new :-).

...

rm \?<name> gives the message No such file.

...

rm \<name> gives the message Cannot lstat <name> : Permission denied.

...

I can read/write in all other directories in /data1 and the one being affected by this problem, and everything in it, is owned by me (user), and, of course, /data1 is mounted as rw in fstab. Root has permission to do all things in /data1 -- except delete the bum files :-).

What happens when you open mc, point to the them, and hit F8?

The message Permission denied (13) magically materialised in front of me on the screen :-).

Cheers.

To to the directory in question (using a shell) and type chmod a+w [Directory/file name] to give everyone permission to write to that directory. Substitute a+r for read permissions, and a+x for executable permissions. Change the + to a - sign to remove the permissions. And (IIRC) you can change the a to a g for group permissions and to a u for user permissions.

If you want to change ht permissions of every file in a direvroty type chmod -R a+w <directory name>

Krikket

Most informative, thank you very much. I have saved this to my little black book of useful hints re Linux. Thanks again. Cheers. -- Wagner's music is really not as bad as it sounds.

May be what you should do is this. use mc to see the files and to change their mode to something like 777 and then see if you can delete them using mc only. There is no exception to deletion when permissions are given. Or may be force an fsck of this partition, which should be the ultimate step. Rohit ********************************************************* Disclaimer This message (including any attachments) contains confidential information intended for a specific individual and purpose, and is protected by law. If you are not the intended recipient, you should delete this message and are hereby notified that any disclosure, copying, or distribution of this message, or the taking of any action based on it, is strictly prohibited. ********************************************************* Visit us at http://www.mahindrabt.com

Alexandr Malusek wrote:

Basil Chupin writes:

...

I have a partition (/data1) formatted in reiserfs on the second HD where I store backups of various files. ... What the problem is is that I suddenly found files in a directory in /data1 which I cannot delete even as root.

The filesystem is probably corrupted (similar reports can be found in suse-linux-e archives). reiserfsck fixes the problem. You may want to backup your data first.

-- A.M.

Yes, that was the problem. The check showed that the partition was corrupted and I had to rebuild the tree. All is well now. Thank you for the help. One learns something new everyday. Cheers. -- Wagner's music is really not as bad as it sounds.

Alexandr Malusek wrote:

Basil Chupin writes:

...

Yes, that was the problem. The check showed that the partition was corrupted and I had to rebuild the tree. All is well now.

If the corruption was a result of normal user activity then I suggest you report it via the SUSE feedback. If your HW is OK (try some memory and HD tests) then there is a bug in the kernel you use. The sooner the right people learn about it the better.

-- A.M.

I agree with the general sentiment but I really don't know what caused it so putting in a "bug" report with no supporting evidence to reproduce the problem would be counterproductive, If it happens again - and I now am staying awake as I copy directories/files across to /data1 :-) - I'll report it (with some comments about what I was doing at the time). Cheers. -- Wagner's music is really not as bad as it sounds.