How do you delete a directory named "."?

[PhB]

My pc has a small fat partition F:\ Now theres a directory inside this partition named "ab". This directory has got a subdirectory named "." . My problem is I can't delete this directory nor its parent. Is there any way to delete it either in linux or windows? Rmdir cmd doesn't work. I use WinXP pro and SUSE enterprise sp1.

 

[dheeraj_kumar]

Try

*www.emco.is/products/move-on-boot/features.php

It can delete files on boot.

 

[bhushan2k]

My pc has a small fat partition F:\ Now theres a directory inside this partition named "ab". This directory has got a subdirectory named "." . My problem is I can't delete this directory nor its parent. Is there any way to delete it either in linux or windows? Rmdir cmd doesn't work. I use WinXP pro and SUSE enterprise sp1.

first telme y r u using fat file system??

 

[dheeraj_kumar]

^^ He probably wants to use it with a dos-based OS. Nothing wrong with that.

 

[ThinkFree]

Try UNLOCKER

 

[pillainp]

Just curious.

How did you even create a folder named just "." in the first place? Vista will not allow me to do that, even if I type a space before and after: it just tells me "You must type a folder name!".

 

[a_tif]

Try UNLOCKER

yes use unlocker i have managed to delete such undeletable directories using it

 

[afonofa]

first telme y r u using fat file system??

Atleast give some possible solution and then ask why

@PhB: Can't you boot into DOS and then delete the folder? Or rename that "." folder and then try deleting it. I'm curious too as to how you created that folder.

 

[NucleusKore]

Boot with a live linux or windows cd (UBCD4win) and delete it

 

[PhB]

I will just reformat the partition. I don't know whether that is really a folder.
The ls cmd shows
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 16384 2007-04-28 19:34 .
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 16384 2007-04-28 19:34 .
drwxr-xr-x 3d4 root root 16384 2007-08-31 17:31 ..
Anyway use ascii charas 160 or 255 to name a folder to just a dot.

 

[dheeraj_kumar]

Well...

. is the current folder
.. is the top-one-level folder

 

[Garbage]

Well...

. is the current folder
.. is the top-one-level folder

lol... you just come to know that ?? :O

 

[PhB]

Well I know . is the current dir and .. is the top level dir. But normally in an empty dir there are only two entries. Here its three.

 

[dheeraj_kumar]

lol... you just come to know that ?? :O

No I was just telling PhB that

@PhB
They must both point to the current directory only, since the creation time for both is the same. Is that a hardlink by any chance?

 

[PhB]

No. That was not a hardlink and now I have reformatted the partition. Like I said it was a small one, created for playing around. Its use was over anyway so I merged it with an NTFS partition.
May the F:\ drive rest in peace.