Re: [BUG] "git clean -df ." silently doesn't delete folders with stale .nfs* files

From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Jun 10, 2024, 21:37 UTC
Message-ID: <xmqqikygzdgk.fsf@gitster.g>
In-Reply-To: <4ed426e4-beb6-45ed-b493-1e19c7c0511b@rawbw.com>

Yuri <yuri@rawbw.com> writes:

Show 12 quoted lines

> On 6/10/24 12:58, Junio C Hamano wrote:
>> So "was supposed to remove" above is not quite correct. Where did
>> such a piece of misinformation come from?
>
>
> "git clean -df ." removes all files that
>
> (1) aren't added to the repo
>
> (2) aren't added as exceptions
>
> (3) aren't repo files themselves.

But .nfs* files are not something you as an application are not supposed to touch, so a directory that still contains one cannot be removed, either.

It's a limitation (I wouldn't call it a "bug") of NFS. You can kill the process (or wait until they exit) holding the file open and then run "clean -df" again, perhaps.

A few Google searches tell us more, e.g.

 - https://nfs.sourceforge.net/#faq_d2
 - https://kb.netapp.com/on-prem/ontap/da/NAS/NAS-KBs/What_are_nfsXXXX_files_and_how_do_I_delete_them

They tell us what these files, which are the result of "silly rename", are, why they exist, and that they will appear again even if we remove them. So we don't remove them, which means the directory that contains them will not become empty, which in turn means we do not remove them.