Unable to remove files

[Jeff Picton]

Hi

I am getting the following messages when trying to remove program files :-

bbd: 777 mode ? (y/n) y
rm: bbd not removed. Text file busy
bbrun: 777 mode ? (y/n) y
rm: bbrun not removed. Text file busy

Can anyone explain these messages ?

Cheers

Jeff

these

[Stefan Farrelly · Accepted solution]

Some running processes are using these files, you cannot remove them while someone is using them! You can mv (rename) them though.

To find out who is using these files;

fuser

This will list the pid numbers you can then display with; ps -lfp

[Mark Greene_1]

Some process has a lock on the files. You can find out which by with fuser:

fuser bbd
fuser bbrun

you may need to be root, depending on the permissions on fuser. This will return a process number which you can grep out of a ps -ef listing.

mark

[Steven E. Protter]

You might be able to use a utiiity like lsof to identify the processes blocking these files. If kill the individual process, you will then be able to delete the file.

As a practial matter, in most cases I've been forced to reboot the system and clear the files after the fact.

SEP

[Mark Grant]

Actually, you only get these messages on executable files so it is very simple to know which applications have them open. In your case, the command "bbd" has the first one open and "bbrun" has the second :)

You can not remove a running program. Stop the programs and then remove them.

[Jeff Picton]

Hi

Thanks for all these answers - I was attempting to run a trial version of big brother but needed to abort.

Jeff