[SOLVED] How do I delete a (broken?) file lock?

wh33t · 05-04-2022, 07:48 PM

Code:

$ ls -l
ls: cannot access 'lock': No such file or directory
total 0
?????????? ? ? ? ?            ? lock

Is this a half way made symbolic link to something? I can't be certain, but I had a large syncthing transfer going on and I decided to move some data out of the directory being sync'd to make the transfer go faster and be smaller. I believe this directory was in the directory I was moving.

I can't seem to figure out how to delete this thing.

computersavvy · 05-04-2022, 08:11 PM

That looks like a file corruption in the directory structure.

Have you tried booting to live media and running fsck on the installed file systems to see if it can be fixed.

Please take this to heart and do not ever interrupt, delete files, or change directory structures when a file transfer is in progress. The transfer process often creates a temporary list of files being copied / moved / transferred before it starts then walks that list to perform the transfer. If things get shifted while it is in progress bad things can happen to your file system.

wh33t · 05-04-2022, 08:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by computersavvy

That looks like a file corruption in the directory structure.

Have you tried booting to live media and running fsck on the installed file systems to see if it can be fixed.

Please take this to heart and do not ever interrupt, delete files, or change directory structures when a file transfer is in progress. The transfer process often creates a temporary list of files being copied / moved / transferred before it starts then walks that list to perform the transfer. If things get shifted while it is in progress bad things can happen to your file system.

Yup, lesson learned. Not even linux can protect me from myself.

Any live distro you suggest? Something small and quick to boot?

astrogeek · 05-04-2022, 08:26 PM

When you see...

Code:

-????????? ? ? ? ?            ?  somefile

... it indicates that some parent directory is readable (i.e. 'r') but not traversable (i.e. no 'x') by user. The user can read the directory listing which includes the filename, but cannot enter the directory to read the file stats.

Your example includes a leading '?' and I am uncertain what that might mean, but I would suggest looking at the path leading to that file and make sure each directory is traversable. Fixing that would probably fix your ability to alter or delete the lock.

wh33t · 05-04-2022, 08:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by astrogeek

When you see...

Code:

-????????? ? ? ? ?            ?  somefile

... it indicates that the parent directory is readable (i.e. 'r') but not traversable (i.e. no 'x') by user. The user can read the directory listing which includes the filename, but cannot enter the directory to read the file stats.

Your example includes a leading '?' and I am uncertain what that might mean, but I would suggest looking at the path leading to that file and make sure each directory is traversable. Fixing that would probably fix your ability to alter or delete the lock.

So chmod +x on the parent? It's already set to 777.

astrogeek · 05-04-2022, 08:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wh33t

So chmod +x on the parent?

Yes, and it may not be the immediate parent so check the full path for any level that is not 'x'able.