What does the 'p' in prwxrwxrwx mean?

trevor_hungerford · 04-09-2014, 05:01 PM

Hi all,

Can someone advise what the 'p' means in prwxrwxrwx when I ls a file on my redhat box.

I want to remove it but I can't...

Quote:

$ ls -ltr sched_1609
prwxrwxrwx 1 fittms rtcsadmin 0 May 20 2011 sched_1609
$ rm sched_1609
rm: cannot remove `sched_1609': Operation not permitted

Many thanks

Ser Olmy · 04-09-2014, 05:13 PM

The p indicates that it's a "FIFO", a file object used to pipe data from one process/program to another (First In, First Out).

As for why you can't remove it, my guess would be that it's in use.

Emerson · 04-09-2014, 05:27 PM

You may have fun reading up on concept everything is file in Unix world. And welcome to the forums!

trevor_hungerford · 04-09-2014, 05:33 PM

Many thanks!

jefro · 04-09-2014, 06:54 PM

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix_f...#Symbolic_link for some more info.