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My server had some issues due to a bug on my server host's end. I restored my server, but ever since then there's been some odd files in my "/" directory.

  • /ý (folder, cannot enter in FileZilla)
  • /initrd.img (system link)
  • /initrd.img.old (system link)
  • /vmlinuz (system link)
  • /vmlinuz.old (system link)
  • /L (Actually a weird L looking symbol that does not copy. File, 0kb)
  • /Ð (Same as above but this one does copy. FIle, 0kb)

Screenshot: Screenshot of "/" directory in FileZilla

What are these files and why did they suddenly appear? Can I safely delete them? Is something wrong with my Ubuntu installation?

Output from ls -la:

total 92
-rwsrwsrwt   1 root root     0 Jan  1  1970 ?
drwxr-xr-x   2 root root  4096 Oct  7 13:59  ??
drwxrwxr-x  24 root 1001  4096 Oct 10 14:53 .
drwxrwxr-x  24 root 1001  4096 Oct 10 14:53 ..
drwxr-xr-x   2 root root  4096 Apr 22 17:56 bin
drwxr-xr-x   3 root root  4096 Apr 22 18:15 boot
drwxr-xr-x  17 root root  4020 Oct 10 14:53 dev
drwxr-xr-x  86 root root  4096 Oct  4 19:19 etc
drwx------   2 root root  4096 Jul 25 17:12 gandi
drwxr-xr-x   3 root root  4096 Jul 19 17:08 home
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root root    35 Apr 22 17:57 initrd.img -> boot/initrd.img-4.4.0-21-lowlatency
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root root    32 Apr 22 17:57 initrd.img.old -> boot/initrd.img-4.4.0-21-generic
drwxr-xr-x  17 root root  4096 Jul 25 16:04 lib
drwxr-xr-x   2 root root  4096 Apr 22 17:56 lib64
drwx------   2 root root 16384 Apr 22 17:26 lost+found
drwxr-xr-x   2 root root  4096 Apr 22 17:57 media
drwxr-xr-x   2 root root  4096 Apr 22 17:57 mnt
drwxr-xr-x   3 root root  4096 Jul 25 16:02 opt
dr-xr-xr-x 167 root root     0 Oct 10 14:53 proc
drwxr-x---   6 root root  4096 Jul 19 17:27 root
drwxr-xr-x  21 root root   680 Oct 10 15:30 run
drwxr-xr-x   2 root root  4096 Jul 19 17:23 sbin
drwxr-xr-x   2 root root  4096 Oct 10 14:53 srv
dr-xr-xr-x  13 root root     0 Oct 10 15:31 sys
drwxrwxrwt   8 root root  4096 Oct 10 15:30 tmp
drwxr-xr-x  10 root root  4096 Apr 22 17:57 usr
drwxr-xr-x  13 root root  4096 Jul 19 17:22 var
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root root    32 Apr 22 17:57 vmlinuz -> boot/vmlinuz-4.4.0-21-lowlatency
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root root    29 Apr 22 17:57 vmlinuz.old -> boot/vmlinuz-4.4.0-21-generic
----------   1 root root     0 Jan  1  1970 ???
Swen
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2 Answers2

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ls -li

This will give you the inodes of the bad files. Then you can remove them using find.

find -inum n -exec rm {} \;

Do this for each file with the funny name. Replace n with the inode number from the first command. One of those files is actually a directory. You can use rmdir instead of rm for that one.

These are just files that were created with a control character. Can't say how they got there, but I don't think there is anything wrong with your install.

MikeA
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  • The find command you give here might delete more files than you intend to! You should at least add `-maxdepth 1`, otherwise find will traverse the entire filesystem. There is no guarantee that inodes are unique across the whole filesystem. – G. Sliepen Oct 25 '16 at 13:06
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Another option is to use Midnight Commander (apt-get install mc). It will allow you to select the strange files with the cursor keys, and just press F8 to remove them. This might be a bit safer if you are not used to low-level tools like find.

G. Sliepen
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