From: fjh AT cs DOT mu DOT OZ DOT AU (Fergus Henderson)
Subject: Re: rm -rf -> Circular directory structure
6 Aug 1997 20:49:07 -0700
Approved: cygnus DOT gnu-win32 AT cygnus DOT com
Distribution: cygnus
Message-ID: <199708061334.XAA06600.cygnus.gnu-win32@mundook.cs.mu.OZ.AU>
References: <199708060919 DOT LAA15850 AT gil DOT physik DOT rwth-aachen DOT de>
Original-To: gnu-win32 AT cygnus DOT com
Original-Sender: owner-gnu-win32 AT cygnus DOT com

Christoph Kukulies <kuku AT gilberto DOT physik DOT RWTH-Aachen DOT DE> writes:

>I'm having a weird problem under NT 4.0 (I remember to
>have seen this with b17 and NT3.51 also):
>
>D:\>rm -rf somedir
>rm: WARNING: Circular directory structure.
>This almost certainly means that you have a corrupted file system.
>NOTIFY YOUR SYSTEM MANAGER.
>Cycle detected:
>somedir/FOO/FOO
>is the same file as
>somedir

This is because the algorithm that cygwin uses to compute inode numbers
just hashes the file name (or something like that) rather than
actually figuring out a properly unique number.  When you get a hash
collision, `rm' gets confused.

--
Fergus Henderson <fjh AT cs DOT mu DOT oz DOT au>   |  "I have always known that the pursuit
WWW: <http://www.cs.mu.oz.au/~fjh>   |  of excellence is a lethal habit"
PGP: finger fjh AT 128 DOT 250 DOT 37 DOT 3         |     -- the last words of T. S. Garp.
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