GNU bug report logs - #9813
rm -rf calls rmdir() prior to close(), which can fail

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From: Paul Eggert <eggert <at> cs.ucla.edu>
To: Eric Blake <eblake <at> redhat.com>
Cc: bug-gnulib <at> gnu.org, 9813 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: bug#9813: rm -rf calls rmdir() prior to close(), which can fail
Date: Thu, 20 Oct 2011 22:30:52 -0700

On 10/20/11 17:06, Eric Blake wrote:
>> So far, I've seen only Cygwin mentioned.
>> Where does it happen in a typical GNUish environment?
> 
> Try the same exercise using NFSv2 or NFSv3 mounts

I don't see why NFSv3 or v3 would be different.
I just tried your test case with an NFSv3 mount
(RHEL 5.7 client, NetApp server) and it did not
exhibit the problem.

> I suspect that it would be possible to find a testcase under Linux

Possibly, but I'd like to see it before worrying about this.

> at least on any setup where you would also see a failure in unlink()ing a regular file with open fds

Yes, if regular files don't conform to POSIX, then maybe directories don't
either.  But we generally don't have workarounds for those regular-file
issues in gnulib, and we shouldn't really: the glitches are relatively
rare in practice and people who are used to NFS know about the glitches
and deal with them manually as they come up.  Surely directories should be
treated similarly.

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