Summary: Removing files with '/' in name (Gator users README!)

[Ed Arnold]

A short time ago, I inquired as to how one could get rid of directory
entries which contain '/' in the name.  This problem came to light when
find(1) (run from our autobackup system) started complaining that it
couldn't locate files whose names appeared in directories.

The source of these entries was identified to be a Cayman Systems
Gatorbox, which gateways between TCP/IP ethernet and Appletalk.  Such
files are created via NFS, and a solution to this problem is to designate
'/' as an illegal character within filenames, which is allowed by the
Gatorbox software.  The *ultimate* solution is for Sun to fix NFS (hint,
hint	:-)).

This is a more urgent problem than it might appear, because one respondent
noted that a dump(8) tape of a filesystem which has directory entries
containing slashes, can be totally useless.  Restore(8) barfs on it.  I
had noticed this problem a while back, but had cpio-format backups to fall
back on.

For getting rid of *existing* directory entries with this problem, there
are a couple choices.  Note that recursive remove (rm -rf) won't work
under any circumstances; that's only a choice for weird characters in
filenames *other* than '/'.  If you have the luxury of taking your system
down, then moving other files/directories out of the offending directory,
and blasting away the offending directory via the "clri" command followed
by fsck, is one option.  If (like me) you don't have the luxury of taking
the system down, then writing a short program to replace the offending '/'
via use of the raw filesystem device, is the second choice.

Thanks to the following persons for their suggestions:

uunet!vrdxhq!escom.com!al at ncar.UCAR.EDU (Al Donaldson)
chip at pender.ee.upenn.edu (Charles H. Buchholtz)
mailrus!uunet!pdn.paradyne.com!hargen at ncar.UCAR.EDU (Bill Hargen)
bears!eitel at relay.EU.net (Eitel Dignatz)
geertj at ica.philips.nl
cwl at odi.com (Charlie Lamb)
jackal at epps.kodak.com (Phil Hammar)
mau%alice.CSELT.STET.IT at EVANS.UCAR.EDU

Ed Arnold * NCAR * POB 3000, Boulder, CO 80307-3000 * 303-497-1253(w)
era at ncar.ucar.edu [128.117.64.4] * era at ncario.bitnet * era at ncar.uucp