Deleting a "lost" file name

© July 2013 Tony Lawrence

I think I have serious disk corruption caused by my backup script. In a certain directory there is a lost file that looks like this:

rw-rw-rw- 1 root sys      593213440 Apr 27 10:21

I've tried to look at this file with FTP explorer but it doesn't show up. I've tried running fsck -s in single user mode as suggested from a support page on the Internet and it should've placed the file in the lost and found folder but did not.

First, you were misled by someone - this isn't a lost file and fsck can't fix it. There's nothing to fix as far as your disk goes - it isn't corrupt or damaged.

This is simply a large file with a name that "ls" can't show you. It HAS a file name- it probably has control characters in it that are confusing the display. Try this:

ls -b
 

That displays "unprintable" characters.

If that doesn't work, do "ls -l > /tmp/t" and then look at /tmp/t with a text editor - can you see the name now?

No? OK, "vi /tmp/t" and move to the line that it is on and type:

:l
 

That is, with your cursor on that line, type a ":" (which drops you to the bottom of the screen) and then type a lowercase "l" (ell) and press ENTER. If all else has failed, THAT will show you precisely what this file name is.

As I said, it probably contains control characters. Here's a similar file I just created on my system:

total 33352
-rw-r--r--    1 apl  apl        0 Jul 22 14:33  
-rw-r--r--    1 apl  apl      251 Jan  6  2010 2words
 

Using "ls -b" shows it's true name:

 \b\b\b
2words
 

It's a space followed by 3 backspace characters. I know the space is there because it doesn't line up with the next name.

Here's what it looks like in /tmp/t:

total 33464
-rw-r--r--    1 apl  apl        0 Jul 22 14:33  ^H^H^H
-rw-r--r--    1 apl  apl      251 Jan  6  2010 2words
 

And when using ":l" in vi

~                                                                               
~                                                                               
-rw-r--r--    1 apl  apl        0 Jul 22 14:33  ^H^H^H$
 

I assume you'd like to get rid of it? Now that you know its name and how long it is (in my example, 4 characters), that's easier.

$ rm -i " ^H^H^H"
remov?  
 

I got those backspaces in there by hitting CTRL-V and then CTRL-H. Notice that the normal "remove xyz?" got partially overwritten by the backspaces in the name.

I could have left out the "-i", of course.

Because I know the length, I could also have done:

rm -i ????
 

That might be easier.

If you can't do that, do "ls -i" to find out the inode number,reboot go to single user mode (or unmount the filesystem if possible), use clri to remove the inode, and then do a fsck.

Finally- fix whatever the heck is wrong with whatever moronic script is doing this- it's completely stupid- if you don't understand the script, post it here and we'll dissect it..

Got something to add? Send me email.

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