rm(..., recursive=true) "directory not empty" errors

[stevengj]

I was trying to delete my Anaconda installation, which is a huge directory tree (10000+ files), with

using Conda
rm(Conda.ROOTENV, recursive=true)

and I keep getting SystemError .... rmdir: Directory not empty errors. However, if I check that directory, I find that it is indeed empty. Indeed, if I run rm(Conda.ROOTENV, recursive=true) again, then it succeeds in deleting that directory, but then proceeds to give me a similar error with another directory, ad nauseam.

For example (apologies for the screenshot):

It looks like there is some kind of race condition in the recursive rm, where it empties the directory, but Windows doesn't realize that the files are gone when it tries to rmdir.

(To reproduce, add the Conda.jl package, make sure it installs Anaconda by running Conda.add("jupyter"), and then try running rm as above. I'm seeming this in a Windows VM, but I saw the same problem on a student's machine earlier today, both with Julia 1.3.1.)

[DilumAluthge]

Out of curiosity, what happens if you try running rm with the keyword argument force = true?

[DilumAluthge]

Also, can you post the output of ] st -m?

[stevengj]

I tried it with force=true (actually I did this in the screenshot), and there was no difference.

[stevengj]

st -m output is here, though that shouldn't matter much as rm is a Base function. (Again, apologies for the screenshot — I'm running Windows in a VM and having trouble getting copy-and-paste to cross the VM boundary. But a student's native Windows 10 laptop with a fresh Julia installation exhibited the same problem yesterday.)

[EdoAlvarezR]

Running into the same issue

[EdoAlvarezR]

Turns out that rm(...) works just fine. It was a system-level issue: there was a .fuse_hidden file in the directory I wanted to remove that was keeping the system from being able to remove it (even the terminal rm was throwing the same error).

[stevengj]

Turns out that rm(...) works just fine. It was a system-level issue

I don't think that was the case in my original issue, where simply running the rm command twice worked.

[KristofferC]

Also happened here: https://github.com/JuliaLang/PackageCompiler.jl/pull/594/checks?check_run_id=3858691323

[AbhimanyuAryan]

running into same issue ERROR: LoadError: SystemError (with ../build): rmdir: Directory not empty with rm("../build", force=true) the directory contains sub directories with .html files

julia 1.6 intel macbook m1

[vtjnash]

where it empties the directory, but Windows doesn't realize that the files are gone when it tries to rmdir.

Windows does not delete files when you rm them, though it is possible to implement that as a feature by abusing the rename syscall. For example: vtjnash/Pidfile.jl@81ef0a5#diff-3b86733f3bbb623c9149814588ef59698913a5e9d9654f999cc726c50a8334cdR241

[KristofferC]

That talks about open files. I don't think that is the case in the other scenarios here.

[vtjnash]

If you are running a virus scanner, many of those causes deletion errors without the trick above

[AhmedSalih3d]

I am seeing this error again in Julia 1.8.