cowan@dover.sps.mot.com (Andrew H Cowan) (02/02/91)
I don't know how it happened... but I've got a directory (on a
Sun OS 4.0.3 machine) that contains two files with the slash '/'
character embedded in the filenames. I recall a discussion about bogus
filenames in this group a while back, did anybody ever figure out how
to deal with filenames that contain slashes?
Now that I've got 'em, how can I get rid of them?
Its a tricky problem, because it seems that every command on the system
tries to follow the name like it is a directory path. Thus, every command
returns "file or directory not found". Wildcarding to uniquely identify
the files is no help because the expanded filenames contain slashes.
Help!!
\_/oo\_/
....................\||/..........................................
Andy Cowan...........||........cowan@soleil.sps.mot.com......AZ...
"Stop me, before I kill -9 again!" -ACn138ct@tamuts.tamu.edu (Brent Burton) (02/02/91)
Thesummary line sez it. I had problems before with mysterious
control characters appearing in some file names as I typed them (due
to the noisy phone lines).
shouldn't something like: rm "slash/file"
work OK? The shell takes whatever is in quotes on the input line
and passes it straight to the program's argv[n]. If the program
uses this string value to manipulate the file, then maybe the string
(and of course, the slash) are being passed to the FS manager of the
kernel. Would the FS then use the '/' to find the file?
---
Or another idea:
use 'rm -i *' -- rm asks you before each file whether or not to
delete it. DON'T HOLD ME RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS. CHECK YOUR LOCAL MAN
PAGES BEFORE DOING THIS!
---- I hope one of these ideas work...
+----------------------+--------------------------+
| Brent P. Burton | n138ct@tamuts.tamu.edu |
| Texas A&M University | Computer Science/Physics |
+----------------------+--------------------------+D.Nash@utexas.edu (Donald L. Nash) (02/02/91)
In article <11714@helios.TAMU.EDU> you write: > shouldn't something like: rm "slash/file" > work OK? This won't work. The / is not interpreted by the shell, but by the kernel routine namei(), which translates file names into inode numbers. The interpretation of the / character is wired into namei()'s brain. Any solution which involves using the unlink() system call to remove the file will fail because namei() will gag on that /. I've never had to deal with this problem before, but I seem to remember hearing a solution. Please wizards, don't flame me if I'm wrong, I'm only a wizard in training. Just politely point out my mistake and we'll all be happy. Anyway, if you "ls -i" in the directory containing this bogon file, you'll get the inode number for it. You can then use the clri command to zap this inode. This will leave all the links which pointed to this inode hanging loose, including the bogon link. It will also leave all the blocks associated with the file "missing," i.e. they won't be on the free list and the won't be allocated to files. After you run clri, unmount the filesystem and run fsck on it to repair the damage. This should get rid of all the hanging links and place the lost blocks on the free list. BTW, you'd better do this in single-user mode so no one will have open files on the filesystem when you try to dismount it, otherwise you won't be able to dismount it. Be sure to read the man pages for clri and fsck before you do any of this. Donald L. Nash The University of Texas System Office of Telecommunication Services Internet: D.Nash@utexas.edu THEnet: THENIC::DON BITNET: DON@THENIC PSI Mail: 311051200131::DON
jmason@gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca (Jamie Mason) (02/02/91)
In article <43579@ut-emx.uucp> D.Nash@utexas.edu writes: >The interpretation of the / character is wired into namei()'s brain. >be on the free list and the won't be allocated to files. After you run >clri, unmount the filesystem and run fsck on it to repair the damage. Why go to all that trouble to deal with the file. Just rename it. That is to say, edit the directory and change the / to something harmless like a '_' or a '.' or antything else. I don't remember how hard it is to get around the restriction to writing directories as if they were files, but that would seem easier than clearing the inode and then picking up the peices of the file system. Of course if writing to the directory was becoming a problem, you could always get the directory's sector number from it's Inode and pull out a sector editor on the appropriate block /device. :-) Jamie ... "Who was that Masked Interrupt?" Written On Saturday, February 2, 1991 at 06:31:32am EST
bs@marvin.e17.physik.tu-muenchen.de (Bernhard Schneck) (02/03/91)
>I don't remember how hard it is to get around the restriction to writing >directories as if they were files, but that would seem easier than >clearing the inode and then picking up the peices of the file system. Of >course if writing to the directory was becoming a problem, you could >always get the directory's sector number from it's Inode and pull out a >sector editor on the appropriate block /device. :-) Not even that hard ... unmount the filesystem, and run fsdb (the file system debugger) on it. My SysV.3.2 box had one for ths S51K, and the 4.3-tahoe and 4.3-reno releases have it for FFS (4.2) filesystems (in /etc and /sbin resp.) >Jamie ... "Who was that Masked Interrupt?" \Bernhard. -- Bernhard Schneck Internet: B.Schneck@Marvin.E17.Physik.TU-Muenchen.DE TU Muenchen Physik E17 Postmaster@Physik.TU-Muenchen.DE 8046 Garching BitNET : schneck@dgablg5p West Germany
mike (Michael Stefanik) (02/03/91)
In an article, tamuts.tamu.edu!n138ct (Brent Burton) writes: >shouldn't something like: rm "slash/file" >work OK? [ ... ] No, this won't work. The kernel does the translation of pathname to inode, and the slash is considered a inviolate holy relic. The shell has nothing to do with this translation, so escaping, quoting, etc. won't accomplish anything. A slash in a filename means a corrupted filesytem, and fsck should be run (my flavor of fsck will complain about "illegal pathname chars" and will replace them with hash-marks). -- Michael Stefanik | Opinions stated are not even my own. Systems Engineer, Briareus Corporation | UUCP: ...!uunet!bria!mike ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- technoignorami (tek'no-ig'no-ram`i) a group of individuals that are constantly found to be saying things like "Well, it works on my DOS machine ..."
donlash@uncle.uucp (Donald Lashomb) (02/03/91)
In article <11714@helios.TAMU.EDU> n138ct@tamuts.tamu.edu (Brent Burton) writes:
=
=Thesummary line sez it. I had problems before with mysterious
=control characters appearing in some file names as I typed them (due
=to the noisy phone lines).
=
= shouldn't something like: rm "slash/file"
= work OK? The shell takes whatever is in quotes on the input line
=and passes it straight to the program's argv[n]. If the program
=uses this string value to manipulate the file, then maybe the string
=(and of course, the slash) are being passed to the FS manager of the
=kernel. Would the FS then use the '/' to find the file?
=---
=Or another idea:
= use 'rm -i *' -- rm asks you before each file whether or not to
=delete it. DON'T HOLD ME RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS. CHECK YOUR LOCAL MAN
=PAGES BEFORE DOING THIS!
=
=---- I hope one of these ideas work...
I'm not a wizard, so anything I tell you here is only my best guess:
It's my understanding that the kernel itself disallows '/' in a filename,
so there's no way to get normal commands to accept it. Try using ls -i
to get the inode # for the file, then (in single-user mode, or with the
filesystem umount'ed, or at least on a quiet system) use clri to remove
the inode followed by fsck to recover the (now unattached) data blocks.
Read your manuals carefully before trying this.
Donmarc@arnor.uucp (02/05/91)
An alternative is to make a new directory with the same parent as the bad one. Then HARD link all the other files into the new directory. Then blow away the bad one. You will probably have to unlink the bad directory to blow it away. Having done that, you should fsck the file system to clean up. -- Marc Auslander <marc@ibm.com>
jackal@munsell.UUCP (Phil Hammar) (02/05/91)
This used to happen here quite often, usually because someone
with a MAC would use GatorShare to write a file via NFS whose name
included the date. The easiest solution was to use the MAC to change
the name to something without the '/'. Then I would carefully explain
to the user what they did wrong and why they would be publicly flogged
if they did it again (restore really gets goofy if it is reading a
file system which contain such names).
Phil
[
--
Philip Hammar
Sys. Admin. for AES of EPPS,a wholly owned subsidiary of E. KODAK Co.
UUCP: ...!{harvard!ima,uunet!atexnet}!munsell!jackal Phone: (617)276-7249
Internet: jackal@epps.kodak.comgreywolf@unisoft.UUCP (The Grey Wolf) (02/05/91)
In article <1991Feb2.113410.23943@gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca> jmason@gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca (Jamie Mason) writes: >In article <43579@ut-emx.uucp> D.Nash@utexas.edu writes: >>The interpretation of the / character is wired into namei()'s brain. > >>be on the free list and the won't be allocated to files. After you run >>clri, unmount the filesystem and run fsck on it to repair the damage. > >Why go to all that trouble to deal with the file. Just rename it. That >is to say, edit the directory and change the / to something harmless like >a '_' or a '.' or antything else. Can't. The kernel's namei() routine will choke on the '/' and try to make an absolute path out of it. > >I don't remember how hard it is to get around the restriction to writing >directories as if they were files, but that would seem easier than >clearing the inode and then picking up the peices of the file system. Not at all: go single-user (this scenario constitutes enough concern to warrant this) ls -i <dir-of-offending-file> cd / umount <fs-upon-which-offending-file-resides> clri filesystem ino If you have to do this on root, a "reboot -q -n" is necessary. >Of >course if writing to the directory was becoming a problem, you could >always get the directory's sector number from it's Inode and pull out a >sector editor on the appropriate block /device. :-) Why go to all the trouble to map the file like that when clri(8) does just what the user needs to do? If the user has data in there, he's screwed if he needs to access it (unless he can hack the filesystem to find the inode). It's a good thing that corresponding inode numbers are kept in the directories with the files; if 'tweren't so, El User would be skruud (less'n he did a dump of the fs...). > >Jamie ... "Who was that Masked Interrupt?" >Written On Saturday, February 2, 1991 at 06:31:32am EST You should be a bit more sure of architectures, of commands and of UNIX in general before you post something like this. The problem is NOT trivial (how a '/' ended up in a filename on disk is beyond me). The solution, by comparison, is. (I, on the other hand, should be a bit more sure that someone else hasn't already posted the answer to this problem, but, at this point, oh, well...) Please don't take this as a flame. It wasn't meant as such. -- thought: I ain't so damb dumn! | Your brand new kernel just dump core on you war: Invalid argument | And fsck can't find root inode 2 | Don't worry -- be happy... ...!{ucbvax,acad,uunet,amdahl,pyramid}!unisoft!greywolf
lwj@cs.kun.nl (Luc Rooijakkers) (02/05/91)
In article <2338@nickerson.munsell.UUCP> jackal@nickerson.UUCP (Phil Hammar) writes: > > This used to happen here quite often, usually because someone >with a MAC would use GatorShare to write a file via NFS whose name >included the date. The easiest solution was to use the MAC to change >the name to something without the '/'. Then I would carefully explain >to the user what they did wrong and why they would be publicly flogged >if they did it again (restore really gets goofy if it is reading a >file system which contain such names). Somewhere in the GatorShare configuration is a box labeled "Illegal characters in filename". If you just add the '/' to the characters in this box, your users won't be able to create such files again. Of course, you then have to explain to them why they cannot create files with slashes in their name... -- Luc Rooijakkers Internet: lwj@cs.kun.nl Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science UUCP: uunet!cs.kun.nl!lwj University of Nijmegen, the Netherlands tel. +3180652271
jfh@rpp386.cactus.org (John F Haugh II) (02/05/91)
In article <MARC.91Feb4134223@marc.watson.ibm.com> marc@arnor.uucp writes: >An alternative is to make a new directory with the same parent as the >bad one. Then HARD link all the other files into the new directory. >Then blow away the bad one. You will probably have to unlink the bad >directory to blow it away. Having done that, you should fsck the file >system to clean up. This is a lousey idea. By merely hard linking, and not moving, you will have a large number of link counts which must be corrected when the filesystem is cleaned. The most painless method is to move all the files and directories out of the directory with the bad entry, unmount the filesystem, zero out the directory's i-node, fsck the filesystem, remount, rename the new directory to the old name, then move the file from lost+found to the new directory with a less dangerous filename. fsdb and adb are best left to people who already knew the answer to this problem. -- John F. Haugh II UUCP: ...!cs.utexas.edu!rpp386!jfh Ma Bell: (512) 832-8832 Domain: jfh@rpp386.cactus.org "I've never written a device driver, but I have written a device driver manual" -- Robert Hartman, IDE Corp.
keinert@IASTATE.EDU (Keinert Fritz) (02/05/91)
I have been looking at a lot of the answers to how to get rid of a file with a slash '/' in its name. Nobody yet has mentioned the very simple answer I ran across some kind of newsgroup a year or two ago. I have never tried it myself, so it may not work, but it is so simple, you might as well try it: apparently, emacs can handle it. Just go into directory mode in emacs and delete the file. Rename should also work, I would assume. Fritz Keinert phone: (515) 294-5128 Department of Mathematics fax: (515) 294-5454 Iowa State University e-mail: keinert@iastate.edu Ames, IA 50011
tchrist@convex.COM (Tom Christiansen) (02/06/91)
From the keyboard of murray@motto.UUCP (Murray S. Kucherawy):
:Actually, I had a file called "-l" this morning, which obviously doesn't
:work with "rm".
$ rm ./-l
This is in the FAQ. This isn't wizardly talk. Sigh.
--tom
--
"Still waiting to read alt.fan.dan-bernstein using DBWM, Dan's own AI window
manager, which argues with you for 10 weeks before resizing your window."
### And now for the question of the month: How do you spell relief? Answer:
U=brnstnd@kramden.acf.nyu.edu; echo "/From: $U/h:j" >>~/News/KILL; expire -f $Udik@cwi.nl (Dik T. Winter) (02/06/91)
In article <19025@rpp386.cactus.org> jfh@rpp386.cactus.org (John F Haugh II) writes: > In article <MARC.91Feb4134223@marc.watson.ibm.com> marc@arnor.uucp writes: > > ... Then HARD link all the other files into the new directory. Oh yes, how to do that if the directory name contains a '/'? > The most painless method is to move all > the files and directories out of the directory with the bad entry, Same question here. -- dik t. winter, cwi, amsterdam, nederland dik@cwi.nl
alaw@oracle.com (Alvin W. Law) (02/08/91)
I remember reading an article in UNIXWORLD which deals with this exact problem. I forgot the exact issue, but it should be somewhere around Oct-Dec 90. -- -- (.signature file under construction. Expected completion mid-February 1991)
guy@auspex.auspex.com (Guy Harris) (02/11/91)
> > > ... Then HARD link all the other files into the new directory. >Oh yes, how to do that if the directory name contains a '/'? The assumption was, presumably, that the directory containing an entry with a slash in it did not, itself, have a name containing a slash. If the directory in question has such a name, the way you do it is: 1) apply the aforementioned "how to fix a file with a name containing a slash" to that directory (this points out one reason why you may NOT want to fix the problem by "clri"ing the file - "clri"ing a directory and "fsck"ing will leave you with a bunch of files in "lost+found" with cryptic names); 2) now apply the fix to the broken file. Recurse as needed.... > > The most painless method is to move all > > the files and directories out of the directory with the bad entry, >Same question here. Same answer.
allbery@NCoast.ORG (Brandon S. Allbery KB8JRR) (02/12/91)
As quoted from <2902@charon.cwi.nl> by dik@cwi.nl (Dik T. Winter): +--------------- | In article <19025@rpp386.cactus.org> jfh@rpp386.cactus.org (John F Haugh II) writes: | > In article <MARC.91Feb4134223@marc.watson.ibm.com> marc@arnor.uucp writes: | > > ... Then HARD link all the other files into the new directory. | Oh yes, how to do that if the directory name contains a '/'? | > The most painless method is to move all | > the files and directories out of the directory with the bad entry, | Same question here. +--------------- clri the directory, then fsck. The files will be reconnected in lost+found. Of course, you'll lose the file names. ++Brandon -- Me: Brandon S. Allbery VHF/UHF: KB8JRR on 220, 2m, 440 Internet: allbery@NCoast.ORG Packet: KB8JRR @ WA8BXN America OnLine: KB8JRR AMPR: KB8JRR.AmPR.ORG [44.70.4.88] uunet!usenet.ins.cwru.edu!ncoast!allbery Delphi: ALLBERY
s082@brems.ii.uib.no (02/13/91)
There seems to be a rather lengthy discussion going on about slashes in filenames, how to get them there, and whether to ask questions about them... Just one thing: Why would anyone want a slash (or any such character) a filename in the first place? -km
bzs@world.std.com (Barry Shein) (02/14/91)
From: s082@brems.ii.uib.no >Just one thing: Why would anyone want a slash (or any such character) a >filename in the first place? Perhaps the file name was in Norwegian? :-) (it's usually another machine, like a macintosh, using NFS to the unix system and creating a file name like "Expense 12/2/91" which is legal and common on macs.) Doesn't norwegian use o-slash and all that? -- -Barry Shein Software Tool & Die | bzs@world.std.com | uunet!world!bzs Purveyors to the Trade | Voice: 617-739-0202 | Login: 617-739-WRLD
prc@erbe.se (Robert Claeson) (02/15/91)
In article <BZS.91Feb14043317@world.std.com> bzs@world.std.com (Barry Shein) writes: >From: s082@brems.ii.uib.no >>Just one thing: Why would anyone want a slash (or any such character) a >>filename in the first place? > >Perhaps the file name was in Norwegian? :-) ..... >Doesn't norwegian use o-slash and all that? Yes, but it's o-slash as a single seven-bit or eight-bit character and not an "o" followed by a slash. -- Robert Claeson Disclaimer: I represent myself and not my employer.
enag@ifi.uio.no (Erik Naggum) (02/15/91)
In article <BZS.91Feb14043317@world.std.com>, Barry Shein writes: > From: s082@brems.ii.uib.no > >Just one thing: Why would anyone want a slash (or any such character) a > >filename in the first place? > Perhaps the file name was in Norwegian? :-) I fail to see the humor in this. > Doesn't norwegian use o-slash and all that? Norwegian does overload (as per ISO 646) [\]{|} into (ISO 8859-1 alert) FXEfxe, but / remains /. Norwegians may actually use - or . to separate the parts of the date spec, so you might be better off with one of us Viking descendants... (Presently, I'm glad that we did not inherit their Runes, even though the winter weather outside is reminiscent of the Fimbulvinter we will see shortly before, or was it after, the end of the world.) My parents were fortunately smart enough to choose a family name without any of the "national" characters, and to give me a name without any of them, too, which might or might not have been caused by a quite astonishing amount of foresight. I've already decided on a dedication line for any books I might produce: To my parents, who kindly avoided F, X, and E in my name. Finally, I hope this makes it out with the ISO 8859-1 intact. If not, some of you might wonder what's so special with F, X and E. -- [Erik Naggum] <enag@ifi.uio.no> Naggum Software, Oslo, Norway <erik@naggum.uu.no>
Jenner@uswnvg.UUCP (Jenner) (02/16/91)
In article <1991Feb13.120201.13608@eik.ii.uib.no>, s082@brems.ii.uib.no writes: > > There seems to be a rather lengthy discussion going on about slashes in > filenames, > how to get them there, and whether to ask questions about them... > Just one thing: Why would anyone want a slash (or any such character) a > filename in the first place? Maybe they didn't. How bout this sceniero. person types: foo/bar and hits return wanted to type: foo.bar and hit return look at your keyboard. it is possible. "Users. If we could only keep 'em off the machine." cedgman jenner .....................................dfpedro@uswnvg.UUCP *Disclaimer? You bet! I speak for myself only.*
rauscher@remus.rutgers.edu (Rich Rauscher) (02/17/91)
>Maybe they didn't. How bout this sceniero. >person types: foo/bar and hits return >wanted to type: foo.bar and hit return >look at your keyboard. it is possible. Yeh, it's possible to type this but in almost all versions of Unix, you'll just get an error 'No such file or directory' or something like it. This will happen whether you're in a shell or application. -Rich -- ------------- rauscher@rutgers.edu RPO 5997 PO 5063, New Brunswick, NJ 08903 rauscher@PISCES Shakespeare learns Discrete Math: {backbone site}!rutgers!rauscher (2B | not (2B)) <=> TRUE
s090@brems.ii.uib.no (Kjartan) (02/20/91)
In article <BZS.91Feb14043317@world.std.com>, bzs@world.std.com (Barry Shein) writes: |> |> Doesn't norwegian use o-slash and all that? |> -- Usually not in file names, but norwegian keyboards have 3 'extra' characters, so if any of you see { , | , or } in a word it corresponds to what must be written ae , oe and aa on 'ordinary' keyboards. |> -Barry Shein |> |> Software Tool & Die | bzs@world.std.com | uunet!world!bzs |> Purveyors to the Trade | Voice: 617-739-0202 | Login: 617-739-WRLD ----- Kjartan Clausen e-mail : s090@brems.ii.uib.no Institute of Informatics or : fribyte@eik.ii.uib.no University of Bergen Norway "Vi Veri Veniversum Vivius Vici"
enag@ifi.uio.no (Erik Naggum) (02/21/91)
In article <1991Feb20.115554.3465@eik.ii.uib.no>, Kjartan writes: In article <BZS.91Feb14043317@world.std.com>, Barry Shein writes: |> |> Doesn't norwegian use o-slash and all that? |> -- Usually not in file names, but norwegian keyboards have 3 'extra' characters, so if any of you see { , | , or } in a word it corresponds to what must be written ae , oe and aa on 'ordinary' keyboards. This, unfortunately, is dead wrong, bogus and doubly misleading. Norwegian keyboards do _not_ have 3 _extra_ characters, and [\]{|} are used in the national variant of ISO 646 for upper and lower case AE ligature, O with slash, an A with ring above. We do have a quite peculiar keyboard layout in this country, but not "extra" keys as opposed to any kind of "ordinary" keyboard (whatever that is). The two-letter transcribations of our national characters is almost entirely a Norwegian 7-bit idiosynchracy with respect to terminals with standard ASCII brackets, braces, backslash and vertical bar. I would urge readers of comp.unix.wizards to ignore the article I reply to. It does not refer to Norwegian practice nor does its author show any particular concern for accuracy with respect to the status of national or international standards, which are in fact observed. -- [Erik Naggum] <enag@ifi.uio.no> Naggum Software, Oslo, Norway <erik@naggum.uu.no>
rob@aeras.uucp (Rob Rogers) (02/21/91)
In article <Feb.16.11.29.52.1991.575@remus.rutgers.edu> rauscher@remus.rutgers.edu (Rich Rauscher) writes: >>Maybe they didn't. How bout this sceniero. > >>person types: foo/bar and hits return >>wanted to type: foo.bar and hit return > >>look at your keyboard. it is possible. > >Yeh, it's possible to type this but in almost all versions >of Unix, you'll just get an error 'No such >file or directory' or something like it. This will >happen whether you're in a shell or application. > >-Rich I belive the original poster said the file was transferred to his machine via NFS (from a different file system). Lots of other file systems don't think twice about a "/". For instance, a Macintosh uses ":" (colon) as its magic-directory-marker. Slashes (as well as spaces) in filenames are _very_ common. (I teach people that come from Macs to UNIX. It takes a long time to get used to _not_ putting a space in a name.) Good 'ole DOS uses "\". It doesn't think twice about a / in a filename. The whole world isn't UNIX, ya know (too bad). -- Rob Rogers Art Director, ARIX Computer Corporation {mips|sun|wyse|jade}!aeras!rob <> rob@aeras.UUCP <> 73377.1017@compuserve.com <> GEnie=R.ROGERS10 <> AOL=MacGun
gwyn@smoke.brl.mil (Doug Gwyn) (02/22/91)
In article <ENAG.91Feb20213007@holmenkollen.ifi.uio.no> enag@ifi.uio.no (Erik Naggum) writes: >I would urge readers of comp.unix.wizards to ignore the article I >reply to. It does not refer to Norwegian practice ... But it was typed by a Norwegian! I think both Norwegians described the same thing, but expressed it differently. Namely, there are additional ALPHABETIC keys (beyond the 26 Latin characters), and are probably no keys for { | and } graphic characters as such. Note that standards for these matters have been evolving; existing systems may not reflect any particular "latest" standard. Anyone who has seen the wide variation around the world in typewriter keyboard layouts should appreciate the situation.