Re: Need to remove a ghost file, but can't because it doesn't exist

[Matthew Krauss <Matthew@Greenberg-Group.com>]

J.A. de Vries wrote:
> On 2006-11-15 @ 11:20:46 (week 46) Ralph Katz wrote:
>
>   
> > How about:
> >
> > # rm -f 1141914051.*
> >
> > No promises...  but something like that worked once for me in a similar
> > mysterious situation.
> >     
>
> Ah, hadn't tried that yet. Too bad it didn't work.
>
> $ rm -i 1141914051.*
> rm: cannot lstat
> `1141914051.M484859P8695V0000000000000309Ip0007553_0.draupnir,S=3707:2,S':
> No such file or directory
>   
I'm thinking you have a file with a name that the shell doesn't want to 
handle correctly.

Try these:
# echo 1141914051.*
# ls | grep 1141914051

See if the file is shown.  My guess is you will get two different 
results.  Try using rm with the full file name from the second command 
(copy and past is your friend here) in quotes.

(Assuming here that only one file matches that glob pattern.  Otherwise 
that won't work so well.)

The filename could (hypothetically) also screw with your terminal... 
Another approach would be to type "rm 1141914051." and then hit your tab 
key, see if the name auto-completes.

If this doesn't work you might want to try using a file manager to 
remove the file.

If that doesn't work, I would suggest that a fsck might be in order.

Good luck,
Matthew