Ubuntu – Can’t delete file even as root

12.04deletefilesfilesystemrm

I tried to delete a directory by running sudo rm -rf google-chrome. This gave no output message but the directory wasn't deleted. There is only one file remaining, google-chrome/default/User\ StyleSheets/Custom.css.

I tried to cd to the User\ Stylesheets directory and remove the file but that didn't work.

I ran sudo rm Custom.css, but the file wasn't deleted (and no output from rm).

How can I delete it?

More info:
ls -la Custom.css gives

    -rw-rw-r-- 1 david david 0 Oct 21 02:42 Custom.css

lsattr Custom.css gives

    -------------e- Custom.css

(the immutable bit is not set)

Best Answer

Most likely some process is holding the file open and/or immediately recreating it when you delete it. Try the following command:

sudo lsof google-chrome/default/User\ StyleSheets/Custom.css

This should tell you what program is locking the file. You may then kill it, and (hopefully) delete the file. Failing that, a reboot should fix it good.

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – I cannot delete files from root’s Trash

[Taken from Thread: I can't empty the trash as a user]

(Solution posted works in Ubuntu 13.10.)

The Trash folder is a hidden folder(the folders name begins with a period) in your home directory. You can press Ctrl+H in nautilus or select Show Hidden Folder from the View menu to list the hidden folders.

You can open nautilus in the .Trash folder:

gksu nautilus ~/.Trash

in Hardy Heron the Trash is in ~/.local/share/Trash/files/

gksu nautilus ~/.local/share/Trash/files/

Select the items you want to delete in the folder.

You can delete the content of the folder from the terminal:

sudo rm -fr ~/.Trash/*

Hardy Heron:

sudo rm -fr ~/.local/share/Trash/files/*

Ubuntu – Cannot delete/move files with special characters in file name

A simple way would be to remove these files by their inode. :)

Use ls -li in the directory with the uncommon characters to show the inode number of each file, e.g.,

$ ls -li
total 0
133370 -rw-r--r-- 1 malte malte 0 Dec 30 19:00 ?2?.???љ?!?Gb??σ?[?F?
132584 -rw-r--r-- 1 malte malte 0 Dec 30 18:59 ??3]d???:????????1????G?p?ȋ??????嫳?d????ą-??

Next, use the find utility to delete the corresponding file by its name, using the syntax find <somepath> -inum <inode_number> -exec rm -i {} \;, as in the following example:

$ find . -inum 133370 -exec rm -i {} \;
rm: remove regular empty file ‘./?2?.???љ?!?Gb??σ?[?F?’? y
$ ls -li
total 0
132584 -rw-r--r-- 1 malte malte 0 Dec 30 18:59 ??3]d???:????????1????G?p?ȋ??????嫳?d????ą-??

The -i option to rm is not really necessary, I just added it to keep you from accidentally removing files you didn't mean to remove. :) It causes rm to ask for confirmation for each file that you want to delete.

If you want to remove multiple files by their inodes, you can use the -o (meaning or) syntax for find:

$ find .  \( -inum 133370 -o -inum 132584 \) -exec rm -i {} \;
rm: remove regular empty file ‘./?2?.???љ?!?Gb??σ?[?F?’? y
rm: remove regular empty file ‘./??3]d???:????????1????G?p?ȋ??????嫳?d????ą-??’? y

You can add more inode numbers by extending the expression in parentheses with more -o -inum <inode_number> expressions.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – I cannot delete files from root’s Trash

Ubuntu – Cannot delete/move files with special characters in file name

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