Cannot delete a directory on a XFS file system

Hi,

I have a small problem with XFS on a small 40 GB IDE disk that I use for my music collection. The disk (/dev/hdb) has only one partition on it formatted as XFS. On this partition, there is a directory that no matter what I do, I cannot delete it. I tried everything, in Konqueror, right-click on the directory and choose to delete it. As root on the console
doing "rm -rf /media/data/DATA/MusicApps" ... but nothing works.

When I try to "rm -rf" on this directory I get a message saying...

rm: cannot remove directory `MusicApps/Loops/loops/Acid Loops/Bass': Directory not empty

But the "Bass" directory is completely empty, there's nothing in there. Also when I unmount the file system and do a "xfs_check /dev/hdb1" I get a message saying...

link count mismatch for inode 184549517 (name ?), nlink 3, counted 2

I did several times "xfs_repair /dev/hdb1" but I still get the same result. xfs_check reports the same message and I still can't get rid of this empty directory. I'm using kernel 2.6.24-rc7, but it's the same with other kernels. I also did check the partition for bad block with the "badblocks" program, but nothing came out, so the disk is just fine.

Any ideas how I can delete this directory?

Quoted 27 lines · Grozdan Nikolov (openSUSE Linux)

Hi,

I have a small problem with XFS on a small 40 GB IDE disk that I use for my music collection. The disk (/dev/hdb) has only one partition on it formatted as XFS. On this partition, there is a directory that no matter what I do, I cannot delete it. I tried everything, in Konqueror, right-click on the directory and choose to delete it. As root on the console
doing "rm -rf /media/data/DATA/MusicApps" ... but nothing works.

When I try to "rm -rf" on this directory I get a message saying...

rm: cannot remove directory `MusicApps/Loops/loops/Acid Loops/Bass':
Directory not empty

But the "Bass" directory is completely empty, there's nothing in there. Also when I unmount the file system and do a "xfs_check /dev/hdb1" I get a message saying...

link count mismatch for inode 184549517 (name ?), nlink 3, counted 2

I did several times "xfs_repair /dev/hdb1" but I still get the same result. xfs_check reports the same message and I still can't get rid of this empty directory. I'm using kernel 2.6.24-rc7, but it's the same with other kernels. I also did check the partition for bad block with the "badblocks" program, but nothing came out, so the disk is just fine.

Quoted 1 line

Any ideas how I can delete this directory?

The developers get in on Monday :P

But some things they will ask:

1. run xfs_info /dev/hdb1

2. run (and capture the full output from the repair process)

3. run ls -lR on the dir that has problems

4. run ls -li on the director(ies) that cannot be deleted for the inode #s

If you give them this information in advance they'll have more info to help you.

Justin.

Quoted 20 lines · Grozdan Nikolov (openSUSE Linux)

Hi,

I have a small problem with XFS on a small 40 GB IDE disk that I use for my music collection. The disk (/dev/hdb) has only one partition on it formatted as XFS. On this partition, there is a directory that no matter what I do, I cannot delete it. I tried everything, in Konqueror, right-click on the directory and choose to delete it. As root on the console
doing "rm -rf /media/data/DATA/MusicApps" ... but nothing works.

When I try to "rm -rf" on this directory I get a message saying...

rm: cannot remove directory `MusicApps/Loops/loops/Acid Loops/Bass': Directory not empty

But the "Bass" directory is completely empty, there's nothing in there. Also when I unmount the file system and do a "xfs_check /dev/hdb1" I get a message saying...

link count mismatch for inode 184549517 (name ?), nlink 3, counted 2

Quoted 9 lines

I did several times "xfs_repair /dev/hdb1" but I still get the same result. xfs_check reports the same message and I still can't get rid of this empty directory. I'm using kernel 2.6.24-rc7, but it's the same with other kernels. I also did check the partition for bad block with the "badblocks" program, but nothing came out, so the disk is just fine.

Any ideas how I can delete this directory?

The developers get in on Monday :P

But some things they will ask:

1. run xfs_info /dev/hdb1
2. run (and capture the full output from the repair process)

3. run ls -lR on the dir that has problems
4. run ls -li on the director(ies) that cannot be deleted for the inode #s

Quoted 30 lines · Justin Piszcz

Quoted 28 lines · Grozdan Nikolov (openSUSE Linux)

Hi,

I have a small problem with XFS on a small 40 GB IDE disk that I use for my music collection. The disk (/dev/hdb) has only one partition on it formatted as XFS. On this partition, there is a directory that no matter what I do, I cannot delete it. I tried everything, in Konqueror, right-click on the directory and choose to delete it. As root on the console
doing "rm -rf /media/data/DATA/MusicApps" ... but nothing works.

When I try to "rm -rf" on this directory I get a message saying...

rm: cannot remove directory `MusicApps/Loops/loops/Acid Loops/Bass':
Directory not empty

But the "Bass" directory is completely empty, there's nothing in there. Also when I unmount the file system and do a "xfs_check /dev/hdb1" I get a message saying...

link count mismatch for inode 184549517 (name ?), nlink 3, counted 2

I did several times "xfs_repair /dev/hdb1" but I still get the same result. xfs_check reports the same message and I still can't get rid of this empty directory. I'm using kernel 2.6.24-rc7, but it's the same with other kernels. I also did check the partition for bad block with the "badblocks" program, but nothing came out, so the disk is just fine.

Any ideas how I can delete this directory?

Quoted 6 lines

The developers get in on Monday :P

But some things they will ask:

1. run xfs_info /dev/hdb1
2. run (and capture the full output from the repair process)

... with very latest xfsprogs please. If latest repair doesn't fix it,

using xfs_metadump to provide a filesystem image for Barry to reproduce with would be helpful.

Quoted 4 lines

3. run ls -lR on the dir that has problems
4. run ls -li on the director(ies) that cannot be deleted for the inode #s

ls -a on the dir to be sure there are no hidden dotfiles

ls -id on the dir to see if it is inode 184549517

-Eric

I do not know what version is the latest of xfsprogs. I use my distro's default (2.8.11)

From the changelog:

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using xfs_metadump to provide a filesystem image for Barry to reproduce with would be helpful.

I can't find xfs_metadump on my system. I only have xfsdump. Is this the same?

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3. run ls -lR on the dir that has problems
4. run ls -li on the director(ies) that cannot be deleted for the inode #s

ls -a on the dir to be sure there are no hidden dotfiles

ls -a "MusicApps/Loops/loops/Acid Loops/Bass"

. ..

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ls -id on the dir to see if it is inode 184549517

ls -id "MusicApps/Loops/loops/Acid Loops/Bass"

184549517 MusicApps/Loops/loops/Acid Loops/Bass

Quoted 1 line

-Eric

Quoted 2 lines · Grozdan Nikolov (openSUSE Linux)

I do not know what version is the latest of xfsprogs. I use my distro's default (2.8.11)

Ok, 2.9.4 is latest. 2.8.11 is from Aug 2006.... Perhaps the more recent version will properly fix your fs.

From the changelog:

xfsprogs-2.8.15 (19 October 2006)
- Fix up nlink checks and repairs in phase 7 for xfs_repair.

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using xfs_metadump to provide a filesystem image for Barry to reproduce with would be helpful.

I can't find xfs_metadump on my system. I only have xfsdump. Is this the same?

Nope, it's not there in your older xfsprogs.

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3. run ls -lR on the dir that has problems
4. run ls -li on the director(ies) that cannot be deleted for the inode #s

ls -a on the dir to be sure there are no hidden dotfiles

ls -a "MusicApps/Loops/loops/Acid Loops/Bass"

. ..

Ok, no hidden files.

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ls -id on the dir to see if it is inode 184549517

ls -id "MusicApps/Loops/loops/Acid Loops/Bass"

So, the dir you can't delete is the one with the link count mismatch stated by xfs_check - that's what I figured but wanted to double check.

I'd be willing to bet that the latest xfsprogs would fix this for you.

Alternately some xfs_db hackery could too, but using more recent repair would be the best route I think.

-Eric

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184549517 MusicApps/Loops/loops/Acid Loops/Bass

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-Eric