Re: problem with invisible/disappearing files - but inodes there

[invader_zim@cia.com.au]

Hi Simon,

Sorry, forgot to cc the list. I found that there are files larger than 1
byte in size:

stampy:/mnt/backup/tmp/CGI_Cache# ls -l register.cgi/f/9/6
total 0

debugfs:  ls -l register.cgi/f/9/6
 302792   40777 (2)     33     33    4096 18-Mar-2004 18:56 .
 286856   40777 (2)     33     33    4096 27-Jun-2004 17:37 ..
 302903  100644 (1)     33     33     233 18-Mar-2004 18:56
f96328d04be7407fd9596c0d362dbfb1


debugfs finds it, and I am able to just delete it if I specify the full
name.

Regards,

Campbell


stampy:/mnt/backup/tmp/CGI_Cache# ls -l
register.cgi/f/9/6/f96328d04be7407fd9596c0d362dbfb1
-rw-r--r--    1 www-data www-data      233 Mar 18 18:56
register.cgi/f/9/6/f96328d04be7407fd9596c0d362dbfb1


Simon Kitching [simon@ecnetwork.co.nz] wrote:
> On Mon, 2004-07-05 at 16:52, invader_zim@cia.com.au wrote:
> > Hi,
> > 
> > We have an unusual problem with 'invisible' and disappearing files: some files are not
> > visible in a directory using 'find' or 'ls' on the directory, yet they
> > are visible using tools such as 'debugfs' or if you know the actual name
> > of the file, you can use 'ls' to list it explicitly.
> > 
> > For instance, in the directory:
> > 
> > /home/stampy/queues/sendsyphonemailqstore/q_dispatch
> > 
> > you can ls -la it, and find no files:
> > 
> > 
> > stampy:~# ls -la /home/stampy/queues/sendsyphonemailqstore/q_dispatch
> > total 8
> > drwxr-sr-x    2 louisb   staff        4096 Jun 25 11:45 .
> > drwxr-sr-x    7 louisb   staff        4096 Jan  4 14:05 ..
> > 
> > Yet when you 'ls' the files directly (which we find from the log of a
> > daemon that places them there), they are there:
> > 
> > stampy:~# ls -la
> > /home/stampy/queues/sendsyphonemailqstore/q_dispatch/1088004896841
> > -rw-r--r--    1 louisb   staff           1 Jun 24 01:34
> > /home/stampy/queues/sendsyphonemailqstore/q_dispatch/1088004896841
> > stampy:~#
> > 
> 
> Very bizarre. I see that when you do an ls, the following line has:
>   total 8
> So it appears there are actually 8 files in that directory.
> 
> Perhaps there is a file with a very strange character in it, which is
> causing ls to terminate?
> 
> Why not try:
>   find q_dispatch -print >/tmp/files.txt
> then use "od -cx" to see what is really in that dir listing? Look in
> particular for an "empty line", which might indicate a problem.
> 
> The "od" program is used to handling any sort of input, so you will
> definitely see everything generated by find.
> 
> You might also want to try
>   rm -i *
> to "interactively" select files for deleting. I have found this useful
> in the past when a file with a bizarre name needs to be deleted.
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> Simon
>