Re: man/apropos/mandb problem...

[Carey Evans <c.evans@clear.net.nz>]

Roger Franz <franzrw@diac.com> writes:

> Evidently, fsck
> lost+found'd the index files for apropos/man/mandb, and when I run
> 
> mandb -c
> 
> to recreate them, it tells me it can't. ("Permission denied" errors,
> files missing, etc.)

I assume you're doing this as root?

Try erasing the files with the problems - use `dpkg -S' to find out
what packages they're from so that you can reinstall the package and
get the file back if necessary.  Use `strace -e file' if mandb doesn't 
explain very well which files are causing the problems.

If you can't delete the files as root, first try `chattr -i' on them.
If _that_ doesn't work, you may have to resort to black magic:

Backup what you need.  Copy debugfs onto a floppy.  Boot from the
rescue disk and mount this floppy (and not the hard disk).  Run
debugfs on the partition with the problem, then use its `rm' command
on the offending file.  Save the changes and reboot, and let fsck
clean up the mess.

-- 
	 Carey Evans  http://home.clear.net.nz/pages/c.evans/
"The risk of U.S. national security resting in the hands of adults who play
with children's toys during office hours is left as an exercise to the reader."
                                                       - Bruce Martin in RISKS