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We've got an old system with a write protected (qstar tape) filesystem on it and I'm trying to copy all the files off there before it's canned.
CentOS release 6.9 (Final) - 2.6.32-696.23.1.el6.x86_64
I'm unsure how the files got on here like this in the first place, but they are listing as this when I do ls -l:
??????????? ? ? ? ? ? Item from 23"2"60 with special chars.xml
If it was just the spaces, it would be fine, but the " marks seem to be really causing all sort of bother. Also because of the read only file system (tapes) I can't just rename the file in situ.
If I try an ls (I get the same if I escape the " too)
# ll Item\ from\ 23"2"60\ with\ special\ chars.xml
ls: cannot access Item from 23"2"60 with special chars.xml: No such file or directory
If i try other command (such as a find on the directory) I get this error:
find: `./Item from 23"2"60 with special chars.xml': Invalid argument
I'm hoping there's some way I can copy this file to somewhere writable (or mounted) and change the filename to remove/change the characters when copied.
--
I've tried a few other things I've found without success:
# pax -rw -s '/[?<>\\:*|\"]/_/gp' *chars.xml /mnt/writable/place/
pax: Unable to access Item from 23"2"60 with special chars.xml: Invalid argument
pax: WARNING! These file names were not selected:
Item from 23"2"60 with special chars.xml
Using single quotes:
# cp 'Item from 23"2"60 with special chars.xml' /mnt/writable/place/
cp: cannot stat `Item from 23"2"60 with special chars.xml': No such file or directory
Notes: Parent directory file permissions are all (and I am logged in as root):
drwxrwxrwx. 2 root root 2048 Jun 23 2014
Sample File listing (showing other files that are fine):
-rwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 10031 Jun 24 2014 Sports Preview 12-3-60.xml
-rwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 4539874077 Jun 24 2014 Sports preview 14-4-60.mov
-rwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 9367284750 Jun 24 2014 Sports preview 3-3-60 Boat Race.mov
-rwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 12825530544 Jun 24 2014 S.Preview 24-3-60.mov
??????????? ? ? ? ? ? S.Preview 24""3"60.xml
-rwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 15449 Jun 24 2014 S.Preview 3-3-60 Boat rACE.xml
-rwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 12682 Jun 24 2014 S. Preview Junior Rugby.xml
-rwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 15348985946 Jun 24 2014 S.Preview March.mov
Let me know if you have any questions or suggestions you want me to try.
Smock
Posted 2019-04-16T13:14:26.803
Reputation: 359
I don't think the name is the problem. I was able to create a file with the same name by wrapping it in single quotes. But all those question marks suggest there's a problem with the directory. Can you
umountit and runfsckon it? – Ken Jackson – 2019-04-16T13:50:35.477Have you tried just single quotes?
cp 'Item from 23"2"60 with special chars.xml' /tmp/x.xml– Ken Jackson – 2019-04-16T13:53:04.207Single quotes don't seem to work - see edited extra info – Smock – 2019-04-16T14:04:33.527
As it's a filesystem that exists on a qstar tape system, I don't think I can fsck it. I can 'umountiv' and 'mountiv' but don't think I can do much else with it (or lack the expertise to do it confidently without destroying stuff). So you think the files might be corrupt or something? – Smock – 2019-04-16T14:06:12.827
From
man 2 stat: "execute (search) permission is required on all of the directories in pathname that lead to the file." I've never worked with tape. Can you mount it readable and runchmod +xon each directory? Or is there a special mount option for tapes? – Ken Jackson – 2019-04-16T14:18:53.677The question marks in the
lsoutput hint that you have problems accessing the parent directory (bad ACLs?) – xenoid – 2019-04-16T14:44:20.133@KenJackson I think there's a catalogue kept somewhere (in the qstar software) that knows what file is on which tape. You mount a set of tapes to access the actual files, but you don't need every tape in all the time. If you try to access a file that on a tape not in the library, the qstar software tells you to insert it, and then it scans the tape and carries out the file access – Smock – 2019-04-16T14:46:16.270
parent directory is 777 root:root - i am logged in as root – Smock – 2019-04-16T14:49:28.220
I am wondering if it's not the " character, but some other character that my bash session is rendering as " (I seem to remember something before when : colons rendered as _ underscores) – Smock – 2019-04-16T14:54:10.437