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Date: Fri, 2 Jul 2010 15:28:03 +0200
From: Corinna Vinschen <corinna-cygwin AT cygwin DOT com>
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Subject: Re: Weird directories on Windows share when using rm to delete a 	directory
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On Jul  1 15:28, Eric Blake wrote:
> On 07/01/2010 03:24 PM, Slide wrote:
> > I am seeing a VERY odd problem. If I run "/usr/bin/rm -rf
> > //computer/share/path/to/dir" to remove a directory on a network
> > share. I get some directories created with names like
> > .XXXfffff8a0015e3b00c65f07a9f20c7a31 at the ROOT of the share (where
> > XXX is unprintable character with the value 0x3f). I ran the command
> > with strace, but didn't see anything in there that would point to why
> > the directory is created.
> > 
> > If I run the corresponding Windows command "rmdir /s /q
> > \\computer\share\path\to\dir" I do NOT see the same thing occur, so
> > something in Cygwin is causing this issue. I am running Cygwin 1.7
> > updated today.
> 
> This is due to cygwin emulating the ability to delete a file that is
> still open.  Since windows doesn't directly allow it, cygwin instead
> renames it out of the way, and relies on windows delete-on-close
> semantics to get rid of that temporary name after everything finally
> lets go of the file.  But if the delete-on-close stuff isn't working for
> your particular network share, [...]

Sorry Eric, but that's not the problem.

Cygwin does what you say *only* for local drives.  It utilizes the
recycle bin directory of local drives for this mechanism.  Remote shares
usually don't have a recycle bin and for the unlink() mechanism I
decided at one point that I don't want to create Cygwin directories in
the root of the share without being asked.  So, removing in-use files
on shares is not directly supported from within Cygwin.

However, there are shares which support that on their own, either
in the server or in the client.  The above folder using that weird hex
number is definitely one of them.  Cygwin has no control over that.


Corinna

-- 
Corinna Vinschen                  Please, send mails regarding Cygwin to
Cygwin Project Co-Leader          cygwin AT cygwin DOT com
Red Hat

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