From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Hendrik Jan Thomassen Subject: small bug in unlink(2) manpage Date: Thu, 11 Aug 2011 10:17:42 +0200 Message-ID: <20110811081742.GA26403@vcursdoc.atcomputing.nl> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Return-path: Content-Disposition: inline Sender: linux-man-owner-u79uwXL29TY76Z2rM5mHXA@public.gmane.org To: mtk.manpages-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w@public.gmane.org Cc: linux-man-u79uwXL29TY76Z2rM5mHXA@public.gmane.org List-Id: linux-man@vger.kernel.org This is a report about a small bug in the manpage for the unlink(2) system call. I found the bug in my Ubuntu 10.10 distribution; its Colophon says: "This page is part of release 3.23 of the Linux man-pages project". The bug is also present in the on-line manpages at http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/online_pages.html The current version of the page says (under ERRORS): > EBUSY (not on Linux) > The file pathname cannot be unlinked because it is being > used by the system or another process and the > implementation considers this an error. But if you look in the kernel source file fs/namei.c at routine may_delete() you'll see two occasions where an EBUSY is generated. So the above "not on Linux" is wrong. I suggest that this '(not on Linux)' be removed. It may also improve the page if the commentary is reworded to give a better description of the two situations. Something along the lines of: > The file pathname cannot be unlinked because it is being used > by the system, e.g. if some (relative) rootdir is mounted upon it, > or because the NFS client software created it to represent an > active but otherwise nameless inode ("NFS silly renamed"). Just FYI: the NFS silly rename (you'll find this term mentioned in the kernel source code) is described at: http://nfs.sourceforge.net/#section_d under section D2. The reason I found this manpage bug is because I stumbled upon one of these silly renamed files, and an strace of the rm-command revealed the EBUSY return errno. I am not a native English speaker, so my text can certainly be improved upon. Regards, -- Hendrik-Jan Thomassen AT Computing Linux/UNIXperts, opleiders & oplossers Tel +31 24 352 72 82 Kerkenbos 1238 Tel cursussecretariaat: +31 24 352 72 72 6546 BE Nijmegen Fax +31 24 352 72 92 info-I2/4/b2VdYhUecB6AVeNQA@public.gmane.org www.atcomputing.nl 'If you think education is expensive, then try ignorance.' -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-man" in the body of a message to majordomo-u79uwXL29TY76Z2rM5mHXA@public.gmane.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html