Deleting a folder named * as in /misc/*

[stanlyn]

Hi,
Wondering how to delete two folders that are named "*" and "*." without the quotes. Their full paths are:
/misc/*
and
/misc/*.

The inode number is 2 for them both when issuing "lc il", again without the quotes. The inode number of 2 doesn't seem realistic to me either (seems too low). /misc is a mount point for its own filesystem.

OS is SCO kernel rel=3.2v5.0.6 kid=2000-07-27

Any ideal on how to delete them?

Thanks, Stanley

 

[edfair]

Are these possibly what used to be the "." and ".." directories that are standins for current directory and parent directory? If so, you can't delete them. Not familiar with anything past 5.0.5 so not aware if 5.0.6 changed things.

Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.

 

[stanlyn]

Hi Ed,

No, these have nothing to do with the . and .. folders. Not sure how or when these got created. I believe the screenshot showed that.

Thanks,
Stanley

 

[fredericofonseca]

you can delete them using their inode.

see following link for instructions

http://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/delete-remove-files-with-inode-number.html

as usual make sure that you should be deleting those files. make a full backup before you do.

Regards

Frederico Fonseca
SysSoft Integrated Ltd

http://www.syssoft-int.com

FAQ219-2884
FAQ181-2886

 

[edfair]

In ealier version there was an interactive remove, rm -i IIRC. Not sure if it was capable of removing directories. It would step through the directory asking for permission to remove.

Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.

 

[stanlyn]

Hi,

>> see following link for instructions

http://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/delete-remove-files-...

Is the link above relevant in removing a folder whose name is a wildcard character "*" or the "*."? I ran across this before posting but would not try because I was afraid because I did not trust the inode number which was showing as 2, which I believe is extremely too low. Doesn't 2 for an inode number seem too low to you especially since its not on the root filesystem, instead it is on the /dev/misc filesystem with its mount point at /misc.

I fixed it by umounting it, fdisking it, then divvying it once I found the /dev name which was /dev/rhd1a. And made a backup of it first without those two folders included.

If everyone here is confident that this thread contains enough info for anyone to remove a folder such as /* from the filesystem, (notice that I'm referring to a FOLDER here and not using it as a wildcard), then this reference can save us a lot of time the next time.

By looking at the screenshot above, I am seeing the inode for the * and *. folders as 2, correct??? And, the root filesystem would have been safe from deleting the inode of 2???

The inode number of 2 would make more sense if we changed the target drive or filesystem for the inode lookup, but as I understand it, we do not control that, only issue the "ls -il". Anything more that needs discussed here pertaing to this?

Thanks,
Stanley