CODEWITHSUNDEEP
shellaix
user785461
user785461

Reputation: 73

mkdir -p returns error " file exists"

I tried mkdir -p /a/b/c on AIX. When a and b didn't exist, this command created a, b and c. But when a and b both exists, it gives an error

Cannot create /a/b. /a/b: File exists

and returns an error code 2.

Any help on this?

Upvotes: 1

Views: 11937

Answers (3)

bu11d0zer
bu11d0zer

Reputation: 443

I had this happen using Parallels filesystem. The virtual machine complained about a directory existing, even though "ls" could not see it. When I cd'ed into the directory, it allowed it, but then ls would fail. So it seemed to be a filesystem caching bug. I solved it by going to the host machine and creating the directory with a file, then going back to the virtual machine and deleting the directory. After that, the virtual machine filesystem was synced properly and I could create the directory with mkdir as normal.

On VM:

> mkdir -p build/a/b/c  <-- failed with "file exists"
> cd build              <-- allowed
> ls                    <-- failed

On host machine:

> mkdir build
> touch build/foo

On VM:

> rm -rf build
> mkdir -p build/a/b/c    <-- Success

Upvotes: 0

zaTricky
zaTricky

Reputation: 2035

I just came across a similar symptom - except that it was a broken remote mountpoint (in this case using sshfs) and had nothing to do with a file being "in the way":

$ mkdir -p /mnt/sshfs-remote
mkdir: cannot create directory `/mnt/sshfs-remote': File exists
$ ls -lscrath /mnt/sshfs-remote
/bin/ls: cannot access /mnt/sshfs-remote: No such file or directory
$ ls -lscrath /mnt
/bin/ls: cannot access /mnt/sshfs-remote: No such file or directory
total 4.0K
    ? d?????????  ? ?    ?        ?            ? sshfs-remote/

A umount* sorted it out. I've also added an exception into the script that triggered the error to also try umount.

$ umount -l /mnt/sshfs-remote ; mount /mnt/sshfs-remote
$ ls -lsahd /mnt/sshfs-remote
4.0K drwxr-xr-x 1 root root 6 Mar 11 09:20 /mnt/sshfs-remote/
$ mkdir -p /mnt/sshfs-remote
$ echo $?
0

*In case someone is wondering about the -l I used on umount: It is probably unnecessary - but on remote mounts I've found it to be a cleaner/easier way to just "get on with it". From the umount man page:

   -l, --lazy
          Lazy unmount.  Detach the filesystem from the file hierarchy now, and clean up all references to this filesystem as soon
          as it is not busy anymore.  (Requires kernel 2.4.11 or later.)

Upvotes: 2

vik123
vik123

Reputation: 95

I think you are talking about this scenario:

bash-2.02# mkdir -p /a/c/d
bash-2.02# rm -rf /a/c/d
bash-2.02# mkdir -p /a/c/d
mkdir: cannot create /a/c
/a/c: File exists
bash-2.02# echo $?
2
bash-2.02#

Upvotes: -1

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