Re: rm -r sometimes produces errors under NFS

[Jim Meyering]

Vincent Lefevre <address@hidden> wrote:
> As a user, I particularly expect rm to behave consistently. Why does
> rm call rewinddir under some conditions only? For instance, if I
> execute "rm -ri dir", and answer "no" to a question for one of the
> files, then it doesn't call rewinddir.

Realize that for most people (everyone except you, afaik),
rm works just fine.

Please step back a moment and consider whether you have an unusual
NFS setup, since you are the only one to report such a problem.
Most of your troubles seem to arise from that.

As I said before, if this turns out to be a general problem, I'll be
very motivated to address it.  If it's something that affects people
only under some unusual circumstances, it has far lower priority.

You should start by trying to reproduce the failure using stock versions
of client and server kernels, tools, etc.  Better still, write a script
that will demonstrate the problem, given a small number of inputs (e.g.,
directory, hostname) and ask people to run it and report any problem
they see.

I admit that the "rm skips rmdir" may be technically contrary to POSIX,
but unless there's a more realistic way to trigger misbehavior, then I
won't try to change it.  However, if you develop a clean, non-invasive
patch to make rm conform to the letter of POSIX, and add a test script,
I'll consider it.