Re: coreutils-6.2: bug with Darwin 7.9.0 HFS+ and NFS

[Bruno Haible]

Hi Jim,

> You mean you've found *another* problem with GNU rm?
> Is so, please provide details.

The second bug is harder to reproduce.
I have a big tar file with hard links in it.

$ tar tvf cross-hppa.tar | grep ' link '
hrwxr-xr-x bruno/user        0 2002-06-02 01:20:05 
cross/hppa-linux-tools/hppa-linux/bin/nm link to 
cross/hppa-linux-tools/bin/hppa-linux-nm
hrwxr-xr-x bruno/user        0 2002-06-02 01:20:06 
cross/hppa-linux-tools/hppa-linux/bin/strip link to 
cross/hppa-linux-tools/bin/hppa-linux-strip
hrwxr-xr-x bruno/user        0 2002-06-02 01:20:02 
cross/hppa-linux-tools/hppa-linux/bin/ar link to 
cross/hppa-linux-tools/bin/hppa-linux-ar
hrwxr-xr-x bruno/user        0 2002-06-02 01:20:03 
cross/hppa-linux-tools/hppa-linux/bin/ranlib link to 
cross/hppa-linux-tools/bin/hppa-linux-ranlib
hrwxr-xr-x bruno/user        0 2002-06-02 01:20:11 
cross/hppa-linux-tools/hppa-linux/bin/as link to 
cross/hppa-linux-tools/bin/hppa-linux-as
hrwxr-xr-x bruno/user        0 2002-06-02 01:20:13 
cross/hppa-linux-tools/hppa-linux/bin/ld link to 
cross/hppa-linux-tools/bin/hppa-linux-ld

I unpack it on a HFS+ volume:
$ tar xvf cross-hppa.tar

Then I unmount the volume on the MacOS X machine and mount it again.
(Alternatively, it appears that waiting a few hours has the same effect.)

Then I try to remove the tree from a Linux machine, via a NFS mount:

$ uname -a
Linux linuix 2.4.21-99-default #1 Wed Sep 24 13:30:51 UTC 2003 i686 GNU/Linux
$ rm -r cross 
rm: cannot remove directory `cross/hppa-linux/bin': Directory not empty
...
[After 15 more attempts, to empty the directories that can be emptied:]
$ rm -r cross
rm: cannot remove `cross/hppa-linux-tools/bin/hppa-linux-ar': Input/output error
rm: cannot remove `cross/hppa-linux-tools/bin/hppa-linux-as': Input/output error
rm: cannot remove `cross/hppa-linux-tools/bin/hppa-linux-ld': Input/output error
rm: cannot remove `cross/hppa-linux-tools/bin/hppa-linux-nm': Input/output error
rm: cannot remove `cross/hppa-linux-tools/bin/hppa-linux-ranlib': Input/output 
error
rm: cannot remove `cross/hppa-linux-tools/bin/hppa-linux-strip': Input/output 
error
rm: cannot remove `cross/hppa-linux-tools/hppa-linux/bin/ar': Input/output error
rm: cannot remove `cross/hppa-linux-tools/hppa-linux/bin/as': Input/output error
rm: cannot remove `cross/hppa-linux-tools/hppa-linux/bin/ld': Input/output error
rm: cannot remove `cross/hppa-linux-tools/hppa-linux/bin/nm': Input/output error
rm: cannot remove `cross/hppa-linux-tools/hppa-linux/bin/ranlib': Input/output 
error
rm: cannot remove `cross/hppa-linux-tools/hppa-linux/bin/strip': Input/output 
error

$ ls -li cross/hppa-linux-tools/bin/hppa-linux-ar 
cross/hppa-linux-tools/hppa-linux/bin/ar
 909286 -rwxr-xr-x    2 502      99         219395 Jun  2  2002 
cross/hppa-linux-tools/bin/hppa-linux-ar
 909286 -rwxr-xr-x    2 502      99         219395 Jun  2  2002 
cross/hppa-linux-tools/hppa-linux/bin/ar
$ rm cross/hppa-linux-tools/bin/hppa-linux-ar
rm: cannot remove `cross/hppa-linux-tools/bin/hppa-linux-ar': Input/output error
$ rm cross/hppa-linux-tools/hppa-linux/bin/ar
rm: cannot remove `cross/hppa-linux-tools/hppa-linux/bin/ar': Input/output error
$ mv cross/hppa-linux-tools/bin/hppa-linux-ar cross/junk
$ rm cross/hppa-linux-tools/hppa-linux/bin/ar
rm: cannot remove `cross/hppa-linux-tools/hppa-linux/bin/ar': Input/output error
$ rm cross/junk
$ rm cross/hppa-linux-tools/hppa-linux/bin/ar

$ rm cross/hppa-linux-tools/bin/hppa-linux-as
rm: cannot remove `cross/hppa-linux-tools/bin/hppa-linux-as': Input/output error
$ mv cross/hppa-linux-tools/bin/hppa-linux-as 
cross/hppa-linux-tools/bin/hppa-linux-ast 
$ rm cross/hppa-linux-tools/bin/hppa-linux-ast
$ rm cross/hppa-linux-tools/hppa-linux/bin/as

As you can see, the problem is with hardlinked files, even if they are in
different directories. Attempting to remove them gives an I/O error. But
moving or renaming one of the hard links somehow "unblocks" it, and it can
then be removed.

The strange thing is that if I try to remove the hardlinked files directly
on HFS+, or through an SMB mount, after mounting the volume (but without
having attempted removals through NFS), there is no problem. But if after
mounting the volume with the hardlinked files, I use rm on the NFS mount:
$ rm -r cross
rm: cannot remove `cross/hppa-linux-tools/bin/hppa-linux-ar': Input/output error
rm: cannot remove `cross/hppa-linux-tools/bin/hppa-linux-as': Input/output error
rm: cannot remove `cross/hppa-linux-tools/bin/hppa-linux-ld': Input/output error
rm: cannot remove `cross/hppa-linux-tools/bin/hppa-linux-nm': Input/output error
rm: cannot remove `cross/hppa-linux-tools/bin/hppa-linux-ranlib': Input/output 
error
rm: cannot remove `cross/hppa-linux-tools/bin/hppa-linux-strip': Input/output 
error
rm: cannot remove `cross/hppa-linux-tools/hppa-linux/bin/ar': Input/output error
rm: cannot remove `cross/hppa-linux-tools/hppa-linux/bin/as': Input/output error
rm: cannot remove `cross/hppa-linux-tools/hppa-linux/bin/ld': Input/output error
rm: cannot remove `cross/hppa-linux-tools/hppa-linux/bin/nm': Input/output error
rm: cannot remove `cross/hppa-linux-tools/hppa-linux/bin/ranlib': Input/output 
error
rm: cannot remove `cross/hppa-linux-tools/hppa-linux/bin/strip': Input/output 
error

_then_ I also get errors on the SMB mount:

$ rm -r cross
rm: cannot remove `cross/hppa-linux-tools/bin/hppa-linux-ar': Bad file 
descriptor
rm: cannot remove `cross/hppa-linux-tools/bin/hppa-linux-as': Bad file 
descriptor
rm: cannot remove `cross/hppa-linux-tools/bin/hppa-linux-ld': Bad file 
descriptor
rm: cannot remove `cross/hppa-linux-tools/bin/hppa-linux-nm': Bad file 
descriptor
rm: cannot remove `cross/hppa-linux-tools/bin/hppa-linux-ranlib': Bad file 
descriptor
rm: cannot remove `cross/hppa-linux-tools/bin/hppa-linux-strip': Bad file 
descriptor
rm: cannot remove `cross/hppa-linux-tools/hppa-linux/bin/ar': Bad file 
descriptor
rm: cannot remove `cross/hppa-linux-tools/hppa-linux/bin/as': Bad file 
descriptor
rm: cannot remove `cross/hppa-linux-tools/hppa-linux/bin/ld': Bad file 
descriptor
rm: cannot remove `cross/hppa-linux-tools/hppa-linux/bin/nm': Bad file 
descriptor
rm: cannot remove `cross/hppa-linux-tools/hppa-linux/bin/ranlib': Bad file 
descriptor
rm: cannot remove `cross/hppa-linux-tools/hppa-linux/bin/strip': Bad file 
descriptor

and natively on HFS+:

$ rm -r cross
rm: cannot remove `cross/hppa-linux-tools/bin/hppa-linux-ar': Invalid argument
rm: cannot remove `cross/hppa-linux-tools/bin/hppa-linux-as': Invalid argument
rm: cannot remove `cross/hppa-linux-tools/bin/hppa-linux-ld': Invalid argument
rm: cannot remove `cross/hppa-linux-tools/bin/hppa-linux-nm': Invalid argument
rm: cannot remove `cross/hppa-linux-tools/bin/hppa-linux-ranlib': Invalid 
argument
rm: cannot remove `cross/hppa-linux-tools/bin/hppa-linux-strip': Invalid 
argument
rm: cannot remove `cross/hppa-linux-tools/hppa-linux/bin/ar': Invalid argument
rm: cannot remove `cross/hppa-linux-tools/hppa-linux/bin/as': Invalid argument
rm: cannot remove `cross/hppa-linux-tools/hppa-linux/bin/ld': Invalid argument
rm: cannot remove `cross/hppa-linux-tools/hppa-linux/bin/nm': Invalid argument
rm: cannot remove `cross/hppa-linux-tools/hppa-linux/bin/ranlib': Invalid 
argument
rm: cannot remove `cross/hppa-linux-tools/hppa-linux/bin/strip': Invalid 
argument

So for GNU rm it means the following heuristics: If an unlink() fails with EIO
or EBADF or EINVAL, and the file has st_nlink > 1, try to rename the file and
then unlink it.

Bruno