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From: david@glance.ch (David Mosberger)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.ultrix
Subject: Need help: deleting a *hardlinked* directory...
Keywords: hardlink, directory, nfs
Message-ID: <1990Sep1.131832.510@glance.ch>
Date: 1 Sep 90 13:18:32 GMT
Reply-To: david@elava.UUCP (David Mosberger)
Organization: Glance Ltd., CH-8162 Steinmaur
Lines: 38

Well, i know that it is impossible to hardlink directories. However,
here is a way  that you can do the impossible: try to rename a directory on
an NFS-mounted filesystem and you will receive the error message:

		mv: ?? cannot unlink <old directory name>

but the new directory does already exist. Both directory entries point
to the same inode number, so they are really hardlinked. The tricky
part is, to get rid of these directories. Neither `rm' nor `rmdir' work
and `fsck' doesn't complain either. Studying the ULTRIX documentation
didn't help either---so, do *you* know of a way of deleting a hard-linked
directory?

Here is a description of the environment in which the described effect
is reproducable:

	System on which the `mv' command was issued:

		SCO ODT (i386 Unix System V3.2)

	System accessed by NFS:

		ULTRIX-32 V3.1

The NFS system was soft mounted (this is probably a wrong for a rw mounted
NFS filesystem, on the other side, it is very inconvenient to have an
application blocking just because an NFS server was shutdown) and the
directory name was much shorter than 14 characters.

Any help is appreciated!

	--dave

-- 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
David Mosberger						Glance Ltd.
Software Engineer					Gewerbestrasse 4
david@glance.ch						8162 Steinmaur