Removing file in /dev/rmt/

[Nick D'Angelo]

Something went wonky with my backups and a file, a big backup
file was created in the /dev/rmt directory which is called 0m.

Careful, I have device files in that directory. How can I remove the
big file listed below?

**** THIS ONE -rw------- 1 root sys 54345728 Apr 6 07:57
0m ****
crw-rw-rw- 2 bin bin 205 0x020080 Jan 22 2000 0mb
crw-rw-rw- 2 bin bin 205 0x020040 Jan 22 2000 0mn
crw-rw-rw- 2 bin bin 205 0x0200c0 Apr 5 03:22 0mnb

My system is still up at this point in time, HPUX 10.20 on a D350.
Thanks,

[Bill McNAMARA_1]

hey,
just rm the file.
It is not a special file and was caused by doing a dd if and of to a file not to a special file. ie you did not have the special file 0m on your system when you did the dd to it. If it was a special file it would have pointed to the h/w through the driver.


rm the file
then insf -eCtape -I 0
to recreate the 0m special file

To remove special files, that are really special files use the rmsf command.

Later,
Bill

[Nick D'Angelo]

Bill,

THanks, but I can not even do an ll on the filename, ie ll 0m.

I can only do an ll and I get all the files listed, including the big bad one.

Nickd

[Carsten Krege · Accepted solution]

If you cannot easily remove it, you should try the following:

# cd /dev/rmt
# rm -i *

This will ask you for every single file in the directory whether you want it to be removed or not. Say "Y" if it is your big one.

You can also run

# ls -lb

on the file to check for any special characters in the filename, which I think is the cause why you cannot simply list or remove it.

Carsten

[Bill McNAMARA_1]

Heres a link to a post showing h 2 delete files by inode number especially related to files that have lots of wierd chars in them

Can you move the file to /tmp ?
..Then delete it?

http://forums.itrc.hp.com/cm/QuestionAnswer/1,1150,0x0c87dfe5920fd5118fef0090279cd0f9,00.html

[Tracey]

You may have a space or special character in the name: ls -b show show any special characters. if it is just one/two special characters I usually delete them by ?0m or ??0m

[Nick D'Angelo]

Hmm, rm -i * did NOT list the file to be removed.

But the ls -lb did give me the (full) name of the file -> .\0100m.

But, I can not ll or attempt to reference the file.

[Steffi Jones_1]

Hello Nick,

pretty unusual problem :-)

Is the backup process done? Maybe something is still writing to that file and that's why you can't delete the file.

But as mentioned above... there is no harm in rm'ing that file and then later using insf to recreate the device files.

You can try the following commands:

1) ls -i *
2) num -exec rm {} \;

Good luck ,

Steffi Jones

[Cheryl Griffin]

This is a really common side affect of attempting to write to the tape drive but using the wrong device name.

A large file is created and can be removed with rm. There is no other special procedure for removing these files.

[Bill McNAMARA_1]

ll -i (to find the inode number)

substitute the inode number in place of the # below; (be very careful with the syntax, it must be exactly correct)

find . -xdev -inum # -exec ll {} \;
find . -xdev -inum # -exec rm -i {} \;

(ref: Alex Glennie in link above)

[Tracey]

Looks like you have just one special character there, using ls ?0m doesn't show the file?

[Nick D'Angelo]

Alrighty then,

My actions were as follows:

cd /dev/rmt/
rm * (to get rid of all files)
I ran an ll and the file is still there.

[Nick D'Angelo]

Bill comes though.

Thanks, file removed.

You gotta love this forum.

Many thanks to the participants, full marks to everyone.

Nickd

[Tracey]

rm * will only get rid of files with "normal" characters in the begging. Usually it won't delete your .* files etc.

[Bill McNAMARA_1]

try rm -Rf
That's a bit disasterous..
you probably have a process accessing the file.

Use the fuser command and check if the inode is in use

[Vincenzo Restuccia]

cd /dev/rmt/
rmsf -a *

[Joseph A Benaiah_1]

Nick,

You could try this:

1. cd /dev/rmt
2 cp /dev/null 0m
3. rm 0m
4. insf -e -C tape

Cheers,

Joseph.

[Nick D'Angelo]

All, Thank you for your suggestions/ideas/comments.

This issue is now closed.

Thanks again.

Nickd