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I tried to delete a directory by running sudo rm -rf google-chrome. This gave no output message but the directory wasn't deleted. There is only one file remaining, google-chrome/default/User\ StyleSheets/Custom.css.

I tried to cd to the User\ Stylesheets directory and remove the file but that didn't work.

I ran sudo rm Custom.css, but the file wasn't deleted (and no output from rm).

How can I delete it?

More info:
ls -la Custom.css gives

    -rw-rw-r-- 1 david david 0 Oct 21 02:42 Custom.css

lsattr Custom.css gives

    -------------e- Custom.css

(the immutable bit is not set)

2 Answers 2

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Most likely some process is holding the file open and/or immediately recreating it when you delete it. Try the following command:

sudo lsof google-chrome/default/User\ StyleSheets/Custom.css

This should tell you what program is locking the file. You may then kill it, and (hopefully) delete the file. Failing that, a reboot should fix it good.

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  • I got this output from lsof: lsof: WARNING: can't stat() fuse.gvfs-fuse-daemon file system /home/david/.gvfs Output information may be incomplete. Oct 21, 2012 at 2:28
  • Rebooting seems to have solved it though. Thanks :) Oct 21, 2012 at 2:35
  • Ah, root can't look into your gvfs, so try without sudo. However, since the file wasn't in that folder, it probably wouldn't have worked anyway. Oct 21, 2012 at 3:07
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I often have the same problem using chromium on Debian Testing. The Custom.css file was indeed blocked by a running program but lsof wouldn't let me know of it. So I just made a:

ps -aux | grep chromium

Which gave me the list of all running chromium instances, and there were 3 or 4! After killing them all I could just remove the Custom.css file without a problem.

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