Date: 10 Aug 2003 08:58:46 +0200
Message-Id: <ullu20zix.fsf@elta.co.il>
From: Eli Zaretskii <eliz AT elta DOT co DOT il>
To: djgpp-workers AT delorie DOT com
Subject: inode problem in `rm'
Reply-To: djgpp-workers AT delorie DOT com

From time to time, `rm' version 4.1 fails to recursively remove a
directory and prints a message like this:

    h:\usr\archive>rm -rf contrib manifest
    rm: ERROR: the directory `contrib/grx246/doc' initially had device/inode
    numbers 7/268435467, but now (after a chdir into it), the numbers for `.'
    are 7/268435468.  That means that while rm was running, the directory
    was replaced with either another directory or a link to another
    directory.

Curiously, if I then restart the command (after chdir to the original
directory), it stops at a different point.  And, if the directory tree
was large, some of its subdirectories are reported ``in use by some
program'' and cannot be removed by Windows Explorer (or any other
program I have; `rm' reports EPERM) until I kill the DOS box in which
I ran the original `rm' command.

This is on Windows XP.  Perhaps another sign of the problem with
_truename that was found in `rename' just a few days ago?