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From: tsarna@pooh (Tyler Sarna)
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
Subject: Re: Unable to remove directories in V1.5
Message-ID: <47214@nigel.ee.udel.edu>
Date: 11 Mar 91 17:23:12 GMT
Sender: mmdf@ee.udel.edu
Lines: 43

In comp.os.minix, Mike Zanker <A.M.Zanker%NEWCASTLE.AC.UK@VM1.NoDak.EDU>
writes:

> It seems that if you issue a command (that sits in the background) from
> a certain directory then you cannot remove that directory until the process
> has finished one way or another. Is this normal Minix behaviour? Is it
> normal Unix behaviour?!

I don't know about normal Unix behavior, it it's normal for at
least some OS's (Amiga OS for one...). It also seems like the
"right" behavior to me. I nearly scared myself silly once while
porting the Quelo 68K assembler to the DECstation 3100 because
Unix (or at least Ultrix) does let you remove a directory that a
program is currently in.

I was working on two different machines, and after cleaning up
some garbage files and directories on one machine I returned to
the other. Now, not remembering where I left that machine, I did
an ls, and nearly had a heart attack when it responded
".: not found". After about 5 minutes of swearing under my
breath and wondering how badly I'd trashed DEC's porting
machine's filesystem and how, I had the bright idea of doing a
pwd, and realized that I was in one of the directories which I'd
deleted from another machine.

Of course you don't have to do it from another machine, you can
do it from the same shell:

	pooh% md foo
	pooh% cd foo
	pooh% rm -r ../foo
	pooh% ls
	.: Stale NFS file handle

(I assume the difference in the message is due to this machine
running a later version of Ultrix)

------///------------------------------------------------------------
     /// Tyler "Ty" Sarna            E-Mail: tsarna@polar.bowdoin.edu 
 \\\///  "Welcome to the Late Show/Starring Null and Void" - Men@Work
--\XX/---------------------------------------------------------------

PS. Yes, they really did name this workstation after Winnie the Pooh...