Re: rm -rf hangs when trying to remove directory which contains mount points

[Jim Meyering]

"Donald Dylla" <address@hidden> wrote:
> rm can be put into a recursive loop that it never exits as it tries to remove 
> a
> directory that contains a mount point.
>
> mkdir /tmp/test
> mkdir /tmp/test/mnt
>
> mount baleo:/mnt/baleo /tmp/test/mnt
>
> rm -rfv /tmp/test

Thanks for the report.
Unfortunately, I can't reproduce that on a GNU/Linux system.
I get a failure, which seems reasonable:

  # rm -rfv /tmp/t2
  removing all entries of directory `/tmp/t2'
  removing the directory itself: `/tmp/t2'
  rm: cannot remove directory `/tmp/t2': Device or resource busy
  [Exit 1]

Please tell me what version of rm you're using (i.e., run rm --version),
and what OS is on your system.

If your version of rm isn't 4.1.3, please see if you
can reproduce the problem with the newest one:

  ftp://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/fetish/fileutils-4.1.3.tar.gz

Also, please include at least the output of your rm command.
Better would be a syscall trace a la strace, truss, ptrace, or
whatever it's called on your system.