help removing a file

[G. Roderick Singleton]

In article <3812 at se-sd.SanDiego.NCR.COM> rns at se-sd.SanDiego.NCR.COM (Rick Schubert) writes:
>In <1990Sep5.180847.21767 at zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu> harmon at function.mps.ohio-state.edu (Jim Harmon) writes:
>
>>Could someone someone help me with removing a file. On our system we have a
>> [text deleted]
>
>I've seen about 6-8 follow-ups to this question, and none gave a very
	...
>
>The most general solution is to execute (assuming you are in the directory
>with the offending file):
>          rm -ri .
>
>Then `rm' will prompt you for each of the files in the current directory
	[rick's explanation deleted]
>
>I was surprised to see this question posted to comp.unix.admin, but I was
>even more surprised at the poor quality of the answers.  But I don't mean
>to start a flamefest.
>

Perhaps, Rick; but I have a real problem.  Directories which can not be removed,
period.  A solution for this would provide the guidelines needed by our
juniour confreres and sure would save me from a newfs and restore.

Some background,  the system is a Sun 3/280 running SunOS 3.5.x and the
faulty directories were inherited from my predecessor who claimed that
sccs had a hand in their creation.   I keep them in a directory named
"BAD  INODES" (yes there's a space in the name).

Here's the result of ls -lai :

BAD INODES:
total 6
22610 drwxrwxr-x  3 root     wheel         512 Sep 14 21:56 ./
    2 drwxrwxr-x 33 root     wheel        1024 Sep 15 15:18 ../
57369 drwxrwxrwx  5 root     wheel         512 Aug 24 20:23 SCCS1.screwup/
57369 drwxrwxrwx  5 root     wheel         512 Aug 24 20:23 SCCS2.screwup/
57369 drwxrwxrwx  5 root     wheel         512 Aug 24 20:23 SCCS3.screwup/
57369 drwxrwxrwx  5 root     wheel         512 Aug 24 20:23 SCCS4.screwup/

By the looks of the above, a simple rmdir or rm -r should remove them BUT
no go.  Now Rick's method (rm -ir) produced the following:

Script started on Sat Sep 15 15:19:21 1990
/ >%[101] whoami
root
/ >%[102] cd /usr/kumquat
 /usr/kumquat >%[103] rm -ri BAD\ INODES
rm: remove directory BAD INODES/SCCS2.screwup? y
rm: remove BAD INODES/SCCS2.screwup? y
rm: BAD INODES/SCCS2.screwup not removed
rm: remove directory BAD INODES/SCCS3.screwup? y
rm: remove BAD INODES/SCCS3.screwup? y
rm: BAD INODES/SCCS3.screwup not removed
rm: remove directory BAD INODES/SCCS4.screwup? y
rm: remove BAD INODES/SCCS4.screwup? y
rm: BAD INODES/SCCS4.screwup not removed
rm: remove directory BAD INODES/SCCS1.screwup? y
rm: remove BAD INODES/SCCS1.screwup? y
rm: BAD INODES/SCCS1.screwup not removed
rm: remove BAD INODES? y
rm: BAD INODES not removed
 /usr/kumquat >%[104] 
script done on Sat Sep 15 15:20:26 199

"Mv"'ing the directories first has also proved fruitless and I haven't
had time to write a program to do the job and 'cause I don't know what
made these directories non-removable in the first place.  Fortunately,
they use very little space.

I will watch the group with great interest while I await your solutions.
Flames? Send them to /dev/null.

Thanks,
ger
-- 
G. Roderick Singleton, System and Network Manager, JTS Computers 
{yunexus | uunet | geac | torsqnt}!gerry at jtsv16.jts.com