logan@rockville.dg.com (James L. Logan) (06/28/90)
In article <7979.9006261239@tsuna.cogs.susx.ac.uk> eddyg@cogs.sussex.ac.uk ("Edward J. Groenendaal") writes: # And so I'm left with two directories, both empty, which I can't # delete!!! # # Can anyone help me from this predicament??? Cd to one of the directory names that was linked and type "ls -la". You said the directories are empty. How empty? If you do not see "." and ".." listed, 1. cd to the parent directory (Using a full pathname starting with "/" since ".." doesn't exist). 2. Type "ls -li" and check that the inode numbers are the same and that there are only 2 links (there should be). 3. Use /etc/unlink to remove both directories. otherwise if "." and ".." are listed, 1. cd to the previous directory. 2. Use /etc/unlink to remove ONE of the directories. 3. Use /bin/rmdir to remove the other. -- James Logan UUCP: uunet!inpnms!logan Data General Telecommunications Inet: logan@rockville.dg.com 2098 Gaither Road Phone: (301) 590-3198 Rockville, MD 20850
liam@cs.qmw.ac.uk (William Roberts) (07/03/90)
Tut, tut - you shouldn't do that! That is I presume a SysV hangover since the Berkeley systems respect the file system abstraction and provide actual system calls to manipulate directories. Anyway, find the inode number of a directory containing the one of your links that you'd prefer to be rid of, move everything else out of it and then use /etc/clri to zap that parent directory: move the contents of the linked directory as well if both links are in the same directory, since zapping the parent inode with clri will kill both of them. Then reboot the machine brutally by pulling the plug or pressing the reset button (hmm, might be an idea to sync a few times before doing the clri). Fsck will put things back together and fix the link count on your directory. If the above doesn't work first time, keep attacking things with clri until you either wipe out everything or you solve the problem. Both are probably more fun than using fsdb (see the manual page, it may work for you). -- William Roberts ARPA: liam@cs.qmw.ac.uk Queen Mary & Westfield College UUCP: liam@qmw-cs.UUCP Mile End Road AppleLink: UK0087 LONDON, E1 4NS, UK Tel: 071-975 5250 (Fax: 081-980 6533)