[Chapter 23] 23.13 Deleting Files with the Null Name
Author: Jerry Peek, Tim O'Reilly & Mike Loukides
Date: 1998-08-04T21:41:10Z

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| Chapter 23 Removing Files |

## 23.13 Deleting Files with the Null Name

I write this article with fear and trepidation; I've never done this, and clri is strong medicine. However, it's something that needs to be said.

I've seen several reports about files with null names - they evidently arise through some bad interaction between PCs running NFS (1.33) and UNIX systems. [I've heard several reports of files with slashes (`/`) in their filenames. They came via NFS from Macintoshes. The method below should help with them. -JP] For lots of reasons, it's virtually impossible to delete a null-named file. The following technique has been recommended:

- Use ls -ailF to find out the inode number (1.22) of the directory with the null filename.

- Become superuser and dismount the filesystem that contains the directory with the null filename.

- Use the command `clri` `filesystem inode` to "clear" the directory's inode, where `inode` is the inode number of the directory that contains the null filename and `filesystem` is the name of the filesystem that contains this directory.

- Run fsck, and let it repair the damage.

- ML

23.12 Using Wildcards to Delete Files with Strange Names |  | 23.14 Handling a Filename Starting with a Dash (-)