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Old 11-29-2020, 08:37 PM   #1
blooperx3
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Angry How can i unlock this directory?


ext4/ubuntu

I can not use “chown” command to unlock b/c the title of the directory has spaces between each word: “word word word.odt”. When I try it I get ‘read only filesystem’.
 
Old 11-29-2020, 08:45 PM   #2
frankbell
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Some thoughts:

Linux does not like file names with spaces in them. You can negate the effect of the spaces using back slashes:

Code:
word\ word\ word.odt
Did you issue the command as root?

What error messages, if any, did you receive?

What is the directory in question?
 
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Old 11-29-2020, 10:19 PM   #3
scasey
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^^. In addition, show us the exact command you issued and the exact message you got in response...please.
 
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Old 11-29-2020, 11:23 PM   #4
berndbausch
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Quote:
Originally Posted by blooperx3 View Post
ext4/ubuntu

I can not use “chown” command to unlock b/c the title of the directory has spaces between each word: “word word word.odt”. When I try it I get ‘read only filesystem’.
Which filesystem is that?

A filesystem can be read-only for a number of reasons:
  1. It was mounted with the readonly option: mount -o ro
  2. You booted into emergency mode, where the root filesystem is mounted read-only
  3. The storage device is read-only, e.g. a DVDROM or an ISO file
  4. The kernel detected filesystem corruption and decided to prevent writing to keep data safe

As others have said, the spaces in the filename can be handled with backslashes (word1\ word2) or quotes ("word1 word2"). They don't result in a read-only filesystem.
 
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Old 11-30-2020, 06:27 PM   #5
computersavvy
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Quote:
Originally Posted by blooperx3 View Post
ext4/ubuntu

I can not use “chown” command to unlock b/c the title of the directory has spaces between each word: “word word word.odt”. When I try it I get ‘read only filesystem’.
The chown command also might not unlock a read only filesystem if your user does not have write permissions in that directory/filesystem.
One example would be if you are in another users directory tree.
Another example would be if the file of concern were on a failing USB stick that has gone into the failsafe mode of read only.

Last edited by computersavvy; 11-30-2020 at 06:32 PM.
 
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Old 12-02-2020, 10:43 PM   #6
chrism01
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Also, 'word word word.odt' - 'odt' is a file extension and should never be in dir name.
I think you are mixing your terminology there.....
 
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Old 12-05-2020, 05:13 PM   #7
blooperx3
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Thanks for the responses.

I think the directory may not have had any contents; i'm not even sure how it got there. I still haven't figured out how it got there - will have to look further, but i think i opened it the other day and there was nothing there. I had a few directories like this copy over with nothing there, just a familiar title. I have to delve into it more, just been busy with other compu stuff. Thanks.
 
Old 12-05-2020, 05:16 PM   #8
blooperx3
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Quote:
Originally Posted by frankbell View Post
Some thoughts:

Linux does not like file names with spaces in them. You can negate the effect of the spaces using back slashes:

Code:
word\ word\ word.odt
Did you issue the command as root?

What error messages, if any, did you receive?

What is the directory in question?
If i recall correctly, i used the \ to open the file/directory. Thx.
 
Old 12-06-2020, 08:33 AM   #9
computersavvy
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Quote:
Originally Posted by blooperx3 View Post
If i recall correctly, i used the \ to open the file/directory. Thx.
On windows the \ is the directory name separator. On Linux it is (mostly) an escape character that eliminates the special meaning of the following character for the shell.
 
  


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