Re: Need to remove a ghost file, but can't because it doesn't exist

On Thu, Nov 16, 2006 at 10:14:00AM +0000, J.A. de Vries wrote:
On 2006-11-15 @ 22:27:03 (week 46) Mike McCarty wrote:

OTOH, something is there. Try using

# lsof

Ah, hadn't thought of lsof or fuser yet. Good reminder, thanks!

I tried both but lsof didn't list the file as being used and fuser
couldn't find the file at all ("No such file or directory").

He probably has a file which has been deleted, but which
some process still has open. This causes the directory
entry to be marked "for deletion", but for the allocation
not to be released to free space until the last process
has closed the file.

I thought that a deleted file that was still being read *was* unlinked
from the directory, just not removed from the disk until it was closed.

-- hendrik


That's exactly what I thought when you mentioned lsof, but that doesn't
seem to be the case here.


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