deleting a bad directory

[scw at UCLA-LOCUS.ARPA]

From:  Steve Woods <cepu!scw at UCLA-LOCUS.ARPA>

    >I took over this host in March and have been trying to get rid of a bad
    >directory which was created in November. The directory cat/file string
    >is '/u17/lost+found/#005628'.  I position myself at the directory
    >'lost+found' and then enter "rm -rf *562*" just encase there are any
    >unprintable characters.  The response is 'rmdir: Cannot remove "#005628".
    >No such file or directory.'  Do you have any suggestions on how to clean
    >this out.  Thanks:
    >Herb Overstreet   (DCA-EUR Administrator)

Try the following:

(1)  od -c . >foo.c

(2)  edit foo.c, find the line with the correct entry
     conviently (under v7 anyway) each directory in the directory
     takes exactly one line in the od -c output. delete all other lines:
     delete the first 3 fields (offset and the inode number),
     delete spaces between characters (there are 3 between valid letters,
     and 1 between letters that are  < ' ' or > 0176 and not in the standard
     [\f, \r, \b, \n, \0] set of escapable  and 2 between escapable characters.
    much like below:

{typical od -c of a V7 directory}
offset |inode #|  file name--------------------------------------------
0000000 002  \0   .  \0  \0  \0  \0  \0  \0  \0  \0  \0  \0  \0  \0  \0
0000020 002  \0   .   .  \0  \0  \0  \0  \0  \0  \0  \0  \0  \0  \0  \0
0000040 253  \0   u   u   r   u   n  \0  \0  \0  \0  \0  \0  \0  \0  \0
			    .
			    .
			    .
0001020 377 004   #   0   0   5   6   2   8 177  \0  \0  \0  \0  \0  \0
			    .
			    .
			    .

    Turn the line of interest into a quoted string.
	"#005628\177\0\0\0\0\0\0"

    Then build a c program around the string:

#include <stdio.h>
char *oldname="#005628\177\0\0\0\0\0\0";
main()
{
    if(link(oldname,"foobar") != -1)unlink(oldname);
    else printf("link failed\n");
}

(3) Compile and execute foo.c (cc foo.c;a.out;)
(4) the old garbage name has been replaced with foobar. The file may then
    delt with as desired.

 NOTES: if the old file is a directory you must be the SUPERUSER to link to it.
	You MUST have Write permission on the target directory (to create the
	link and to unlink the old file). 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
<cepu!scw at ucla-locus>