[CentOS] C5 : Deleting un-deletable files ?

After unmounting filesystem (assuming this is one of filesystems you can
not run fsck when it is mounted) and running fsck as Steven suggested, try
to delete files in question (if they are still present). If they still
resist, there may be immutable bit that got set somehow, you will need to
use chattr command then to unset it first, then you should be able to
delete files.

Good luck.

Valeri

On Sat, September 13, 2014 12:20 pm, Always Learning wrote:
>
> During a routine trawl through the ext3 files, I found some astronomical
> file sizes, billions and billions of GB.
> They also has strange user and group names.
> I can not delete these "weird files" (the term used by the operating
> system utilities).
>
> Here are a few examples. The original files were created on Windoze 98
> version 2 circa 2001.
>
>> 2411957 p--x---rwx 65487 299196551 2101198676            775118685 Apr
>> 5  1943 00002434.thm
>> 2411959 ?--xr-srwT  6581     42211      24637           1333254828 Jan
>> 30  2029 00002435
>> 2411960 -rwxr-xr-x 44608 305922048 3679253821 14580319157523353423 Dec
>> 1  1949 00002437
>
> lsattr: Operation not supported While reading flags on .....
>
> stat   .......   A "normal" file looks this this example:
>
>>   File: `00002436'
>>   Size: 47537           Blocks: 96         IO Block: 4096   regular file
>> Device: fd00h/64768d    Inode: 2411956     Links: 1
>> Access: (0755/-rwxr-xr-x)  Uid: (    0/    root)   Gid: (    0/    root)
>> Access: 2014-09-13 17:36:21.000000000 +0100
>> Modify: 2001-02-21 00:52:50.000000000 +0000
>> Change: 2013-03-12 06:26:36.000000000 +0000
>
> The problem files look like this:
>
>> File: `00002434.thm'
>>   Size: 775118685       Blocks: 3429617551 IO Block: 4096   fifo
>> Device: fd00h/64768d    Inode: 2411957     Links: 65487
>> Access: (0107/p--x---rwx)  Uid: (299196551/ UNKNOWN)   Gid: (2101198676/
>> UNKNOWN)
>> Access: 1951-12-14 00:29:38.000000000 +0000
>> Modify: 1943-04-05 10:37:22.000000000 +0200
>> Change: 2011-08-13 06:50:44.000000000 +0100
>
>>   File: `00002435'
>>   Size: 1333254828      Blocks: 1402834881 IO Block: 4096   weird file
>> Device: fd00h/64768d    Inode: 2411959     Links: 6581
>> Access: (3156/?--xr-srwT)  Uid: (42211/ UNKNOWN)   Gid: (24637/ UNKNOWN)
>> Access: 1926-11-04 02:28:28.000000000 +0000
>> Modify: 2029-01-30 15:25:30.000000000 +0000
>> Change: 1928-09-14 11:19:14.000000000 +0100
>
>>  File: `00002437'
>>   Size: 14580319157523353423    Blocks: 1664918158 IO Block: 4096
>> regular file
>> Device: fd00h/64768d    Inode: 2411960     Links: 44608
>> Access: (0755/-rwxr-xr-x)  Uid: (305922048/ UNKNOWN)   Gid: (3679253821/
>> UNKNOWN)
>> Access: 2014-09-13 17:36:28.000000000 +0100
>> Modify: 1949-12-01 22:31:41.000000000 +0000
>> Change: 2030-03-17 01:15:08.000000000 +0000
>
>
> rm: cannot remove `00002437': Operation not permitted
>
> However using 'lsattr 00002437' to expose the flags, then removing
> the flags with 'chattr -{flag) 00002437' eventually permitted me to delete
> the file with 'rm 00002437'.
>
> The remaining two files appear un-touchable.
>
>     lsattr 00002435
>     lsattr: Operation not supported While reading flags on 00002435
>
>     chattr -a 00002434.thm  ('a' was a random choice)
>     chattr: Operation not supported while reading flags on 00002434.thm
>
>     find . -inum 2411959 -exec rm -i {} \;
>     rm: remove weird file `./00002435'? y
>     rm: cannot remove `./00002435': Operation not permitted
>
> All advice, except to transfer everything to a new partition then reformat
> the bad partition (which I will do eventually), appreciated.
>
>
>
> --
> Thank you,
>
> Paul.
> England, EU.
>
>    Centos, Exim, Apache, Libre Office is the future. Micro$oft is the
> past.
>
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> CentOS at centos.org
> http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
>


++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Valeri Galtsev
Sr System Administrator
Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics
Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics
University of Chicago
Phone: 773-702-4247
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++