Hello,

I have a directory of mp3s I'm organizing as root. I can move files into this directory and delete them, but I can't move files already present out, delete them, or change their modes.

These are the commands I've tried, and the results:
rm gordon_lightfoot-wreck_of_the_edmond_fitzgerald.mp3

rm: remove write-protected regular file `gordon_lightfoot-wreck_of_the_edmond_fitzgerald.mp3'? y

rm: cannot remove `gordon_lightfoot-wreck_of_the_edmond_fitzgerald.mp3': Operation not permitted.
(rm -f <filename> produces the same results.)

mv gordon_lightfoot-wreck_of_the_edmond_fitzgerald.mp3 /mp3/

mv:: cannot move `gordon_lightfoot-wreck_of_the_edmond_fitzgerald.mp3': to /mp3/gordon_lightfoot-wreck_of_the_edmond_fitzgerald.mp3' Operation not permitted

chmod go-r gordon_lightfoot-wreck_of_the_edmond_fitzgerald.mp3

chmod: changing permissions of `gordon_lightfoot-wreck_of_the_edmond_fitzgerald.mp3': Operation not permitted.

/mp3/80s/ directory permissions: drwxr-xr-x
The file's permissions are -rw-r--r-- and the owner is root--yet root can do nothing to any files in the directory!

It sounds like the directory and all its files are sticky, but I have no idea how to check, or how to fix it.

run fsck on the partition. It might be pooched.

It sounds like the files in question may have some limiting attributes. To take a look at the attributes for files in a given file:

lsattr <filename>

if the result is:

-------------

Then you have no attributes assigned to this file, and the problem is likely somethng else, if, instead you have one or more letters, such as:

-----a-------

Then you have some form of restrictive attribute, that is likely preventing you from modifying the file as you would like to. To get a discription of the specific attributes that are assigned to a file, I would suggest 'man chattr', which will discribe the attributes and give you the format to modify them with the 'chattr' command, such as to remove the 'append-only' attribute in my previous sample, the command would be:

chattr -a <filename>

I hope that this helps