Cannot remove directory on btrfs

There is an object on btrfs file system called "????????? ??????" which probably some improperly deleted or copied temporary file or directory. And which can't be removed with common commands: rm, rm -d:

[root@localhost sessions]# rm -d \?\?\?\?\?\?\?\?\?\ \?\?\?\?\?\?/
rm: cannot remove ‘????????? ??????/’: Directory not empty
[root@localhost sessions]# rm -dr \?\?\?\?\?\?\?\?\?\ \?\?\?\?\?\?/
rm: descend into directory ‘????????? ??????/’? y
rm: remove directory ‘????????? ??????/’? y
rm: cannot remove ‘????????? ??????/’: No such file or directory
[root@localhost sessions]# rm \?\?\?\?\?\?\?\?\?\ \?\?\?\?\?\?/
rm: cannot remove ‘????????? ??????/’: Is a directory
[root@localhost sessions]# file \?\?\?\?\?\?\?\?\?\ \?\?\?\?\?\?/
????????? ??????/: directory

How such objects should be deleted?

UPDATE: OS and shell:

Linux 4.0.4-2-ARCH #1 SMP PREEMPT Fri May 22 03:19:32 UTC 2015 i686 GNU/Linux

GNU bash, version 4.3.39(1)-release (i686-pc-linux-gnu)

UPDATE2:

[root@localhost sessions]# rm -fr \?\?\?\?\?\?\?\?\?\ \?\?\?\?\?\?/
[root@localhost sessions]# ls
????????? ??????   backup-9.session
[root@localhost sessions]# lsattr \?\?\?\?\?\?\?\?\?\ \?\?\?\?\?\?/
[root@localhost sessions]#

UPDATE3:

[root@localhost sessions]# echo $LANG
en_US.UTF-8
[root@localhost sessions]# locale
LANG=en_US.UTF-8
LC_CTYPE="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_NUMERIC="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_TIME="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_COLLATE="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_MONETARY="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_MESSAGES="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_PAPER="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_NAME="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_ADDRESS="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_TELEPHONE="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_MEASUREMENT="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_IDENTIFICATION="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_ALL=

UPDATE4:

[root@localhost sessions]# ls -la
ls: ????????? ??????: No such file or directory
total 23760
drwxr-xr-x 1 al users       0 Aug 13  2014 ????????? ??????
drwxr-xr-x 1 al users       0 Jun  7 05:53 .
drwx------ 1 al users       0 Jun  8 05:06 ..
-rw-r--r-- 1 al users  274557 May 24 18:58 backup-11.session

UPDATE5:

[root@localhost sessions]# find . -exec rm -fr {} \;
rm: refusing to remove ‘.’ or ‘..’ directory: skipping ‘.’
[root@localhost sessions]# ls -la
ls: ????????? ??????: No such file or directory
total 0
drwxr-xr-x 1 al users 0 Aug 13  2014 ????????? ??????
drwxr-xr-x 1 al users 0 Jun  8 17:03 .
drwx------ 1 al users 0 Jun  8 05:06 ..
[root@localhost sessions]#

Al Berger

Posted 2015-06-08T13:05:43.103

Reputation: 481

The command I usually use is rm -rf. Are you sure that the directory name is correct (ls often shows ? for unprintable characters)? Try ls -b to verify. I often find a GUI file manager is a good way to remove awkward names. A little more about your Linux distribution and shell flavour would be helpful. – AFH – 2015-06-08T13:19:02.427

@AFH: the name was entered with autocompletion by pressing Tab. About OS and shell I updated the post. – Al Berger – 2015-06-08T13:26:04.740

1Looking at the comments against e_z's answer, I am inclined to suspect a file system corruption. If the problem is in the same partition as the root directory, you'll need to boot another system, such as a Live CD, and run fsck from there (or use recovery mode). You should also be able to delete from there, and a Live CD will give you a GUI file manager in case you've not configured one in your system. – AFH – 2015-06-08T14:41:58.993

AFH, I just started another 'btrfs check' and it shows 'checksum verify failed on...'. When it ends I'll run 'btrfs check --fix-crc' and see if the problem persists. – Al Berger – 2015-06-08T14:46:19.660

Answers

After rebuilding checksums for the whole partition, running scrub and --repair one more time - the garbage filesystem entries are at last gone.

Al Berger

Posted 2015-06-08T13:05:43.103

Reputation: 481

Please try to run as follows:

rm -fr <directory>

also check attributes using lsattr, if need be can use chattr to change attributes, see appropriate man pages.

e_z

Posted 2015-06-08T13:05:43.103

Reputation: 11

Seems that with that object neither rm -fr nor lsattr aren't working (the post is updated) – Al Berger – 2015-06-08T13:38:58.750

what is the value of LANG environment variable ? could you please run locale and post it. May be you have to set your language settings ? – e_z – 2015-06-08T13:42:24.360

Any output in /var/log/messages when trying to delete this folder ? – e_z – 2015-06-08T13:54:05.643

I would also try fsck on the filesystem at a convenient time. I you can move other files somewhere else temporarily, could do something like: cd <parent> ; mv <all needed files/folders elswhere>;find . -exec rm -fr {} \; ;mv <back your backed up files/folders> – e_z – 2015-06-08T13:56:26.000

On that machine systemd is used and /var/log/messages isn't present. 'journalctl -xn20' doesn't show any messages for that time. – Al Berger – 2015-06-08T13:58:01.973

'btrfs check' and 'scrub' and even 'btrfs check --repair' already were done, but that filesystem entry keeps remaining. – Al Berger – 2015-06-08T14:02:11.773

Try to run lsof +D <folder> to see which processes potentially have open files in it ? – e_z – 2015-06-08T14:03:32.087

e_z, lsof doesn't show other processes for that directory. Also for -exec rm please check the UPDATE5 in the post. – Al Berger – 2015-06-08T14:12:05.627

I'm lost, from brtfs FAQ I found same commands as you already mentioned: link .

– e_z – 2015-06-08T14:21:50.800

I was thinking yesterday a bit more and las thing I can suggest is trying to remove file using it's inode.

– e_z – 2015-06-09T08:49:51.867

e_z - thanks, very useful link, bookmarked it. – Al Berger – 2015-06-09T12:57:38.727