even the power of sudo cannot remove it

[Reurbo]

LOL
ok, so i have this rare occurrence that is starting to get annoying.
occasionally when i move (cut/paste) a folder to another location, sometimes a folder (and sometimes a sub-folder) will remain at the "from" location.
nothing will be in this folder, it won't have a lock on the icon, but it won't delete.
i've tried:
1. delete keyboard button
2. right-click-->move to trash
3. drag-n-drop over the trash icon
4. shift+delete combo
5. open konsole-->type sudo rm -r "path to folder"
6. moving (cut/paste) the folder to another location to delete

1-3 shows the folder disappear and says it was moved to the trash, but hitting F5 to refresh and the folder pops back into existence.
4 reads the error message at the bottom of the window saying 'Could not remove folder..."
5 says 'cannot remove file...; file exists'
and 6 basically just copies the folder which CAN be deleted but the original still remains


any suggestions?
this is a weird one... even for me LOL

[muzicman0]

Re: even the power of sudo cannot remove it

not sure why this happens, but I have seen this also...what works for me is

sudo su
rm -r /path/to/folder
exit

mm0

[Reurbo]

Re: even the power of sudo cannot remove it

thanks, mm0, but i just tried that and it too says

rm: cannot remove directory `/media/1.5TB/My Documents/My Videos/willNotDelete/House/House MD Season 3': File exists

thanks though.... i guess i could change the folder names to be used in place of folders that will delete... make the most of it or something LOL

[Snowhog]

Re: even the power of sudo cannot remove it

rm works only on files. You are trying to remove a directory. Use rmdir instead. By default, rmdir will only remove the target directory if it is empty of all files, including hidden ones.

[Reurbo]

Re: even the power of sudo cannot remove it

hahahaha
figures i'd be too tired to catch that (rm --> rmdir).
went back and tried it but still got the same result. i've gone and checked the folder and there aren't any hidden files in it. the "willNotDelete" folder and the 2 sub folders just won't die

time to reboot LOL

[Snowhog]

Re: even the power of sudo cannot remove it

No. Just cd into the directory one level above the last 'sub-directory' and rmdir that directory. Then cd .. to back out one level and rmdir the next 'sub-directory.' Repeat this process until the directory structure you want removed is gone.

Open a console and type man rmdir to learn about the command.

[kubicle]

Re: even the power of sudo cannot remove it

rmdir will remove empty directories

rm with -r, -R or --recursive option should remove directories, subdirectories and all the files.

[russlar]

Re: even the power of sudo cannot remove it

rmdir will remove empty directories

rm with -r, -R or --recursive option should remove directories, subdirectories and all the files.

and -f will force the issue