ERROR: Could not destroy subvolume/snapshot: Directory not empty

ERROR: Could not destroy subvolume/snapshot: Directory not empty

[Nick Gilmour]

Hi all,

I'm trying to delete some older broken subvolumes, but I'm getting
following error:

# btrfs subvolume delete /tlsv5/@.broken.20190830a

Delete subvolume (no-commit): '/tlsv5/@.broken.20190830a'
ERROR: Could not destroy subvolume/snapshot: Directory not empty

The output of my subvolumes list looks like this:

# btrfs subvolume list -a /
ID 257 gen 1097743 top level 5 path <FS_TREE>/@.broken.20190830a
ID 258 gen 1097611 top level 5 path <FS_TREE>/@snapshots
ID 259 gen 1097759 top level 5 path <FS_TREE>/@opt
ID 260 gen 1097808 top level 5 path <FS_TREE>/@tmp
ID 261 gen 1097806 top level 5 path <FS_TREE>/@log
ID 262 gen 1097612 top level 5 path <FS_TREE>/@pkg
ID 263 gen 1047152 top level 5 path <FS_TREE>/@machines
ID 264 gen 1097706 top level 5 path <FS_TREE>/@usr_local
ID 272 gen 116 top level 258 path <FS_TREE>/@snapshots/1/snapshot
ID 301 gen 22476 top level 258 path <FS_TREE>/@snapshots/2/snapshot
ID 302 gen 22481 top level 258 path <FS_TREE>/@snapshots/3/snapshot
ID 324 gen 54829 top level 257 path
<FS_TREE>/@.broken.20190830a/var/lib/portables
ID 351 gen 268851 top level 257 path
<FS_TREE>/@.broken.20190830a/var/lib/docker/btrfs/subvolumes/641bd5ec86e1c5e1f2d504a0656da736bafb858551067aca7f1b84c24c1e7d33
...

Am I doing it wrong or how can I force the deletion of this subvolume?
Thanks.

Regards,
Nick

Re: ERROR: Could not destroy subvolume/snapshot: Directory not empty

[Roman Mamedov]

On Mon, 20 Apr 2020 12:05:58 +0200
Nick Gilmour <nickeforos@gmail.com> wrote:

> # btrfs subvolume delete /tlsv5/@.broken.20190830a
> 
> Delete subvolume (no-commit): '/tlsv5/@.broken.20190830a'
> ERROR: Could not destroy subvolume/snapshot: Directory not empty

It appears like it contains a few other subvolumes:

> ID 324 gen 54829 top level 257 path
> <FS_TREE>/@.broken.20190830a/var/lib/portables
> ID 351 gen 268851 top level 257 path
> <FS_TREE>/@.broken.20190830a/var/lib/docker/btrfs/subvolumes/641bd5ec86e1c5e1f2d504a0656da736bafb858551067aca7f1b84c24c1e7d33
> ...

Even though it doesn't really "contain" them for the purposes of snapshotting,
for deletion you first have to remove all the nested ones.

I believe in recent enough kernels the regular "rmdir" call is able to remove
empty subvolumes, so doing an "rm -rf" on the subvolume you want to remove
will take care of all the nested ones (if any). Or if there's just a couple,
then just remove them manually first.

-- 
With respect,
Roman

Re: ERROR: Could not destroy subvolume/snapshot: Directory not empty

[Nick Gilmour]

Thanks!

I did:
# rm -rf /tlsv5/@.broken.20200319a
and it took less than 1 minute to finish.

Regards,
Nick

On Mon, Apr 20, 2020 at 12:34 PM Roman Mamedov <rm@romanrm.net> wrote:
>
> On Mon, 20 Apr 2020 12:05:58 +0200
> Nick Gilmour <nickeforos@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > # btrfs subvolume delete /tlsv5/@.broken.20190830a
> >
> > Delete subvolume (no-commit): '/tlsv5/@.broken.20190830a'
> > ERROR: Could not destroy subvolume/snapshot: Directory not empty
>
> It appears like it contains a few other subvolumes:
>
> > ID 324 gen 54829 top level 257 path
> > <FS_TREE>/@.broken.20190830a/var/lib/portables
> > ID 351 gen 268851 top level 257 path
> > <FS_TREE>/@.broken.20190830a/var/lib/docker/btrfs/subvolumes/641bd5ec86e1c5e1f2d504a0656da736bafb858551067aca7f1b84c24c1e7d33
> > ...
>
> Even though it doesn't really "contain" them for the purposes of snapshotting,
> for deletion you first have to remove all the nested ones.
>
> I believe in recent enough kernels the regular "rmdir" call is able to remove
> empty subvolumes, so doing an "rm -rf" on the subvolume you want to remove
> will take care of all the nested ones (if any). Or if there's just a couple,
> then just remove them manually first.
>
> --
> With respect,
> Roman