[PLUG] Undeletable file, how to get rid of it?

[Greg Helledy <gregsonh@gra-inc.com>]

A user found they couldn't delete a directory on their FTP account and 
called me for help, thinking their permissions had been changed.
It turns out that the reason is there's a file they uploaded that the OS 
can't delete.
The FTP server is running on linux; the user's FTP directory is stored 
on a separate NAS device on the LAN.  It is mounted with cifs at boot.

I've searched for help on this but answers provided seem to focus on the 
case where the filename has spaces or other embedded non-visible 
characters.  In that case, using Midnight Commander or another program 
that lets you select and delete the file, works.

I cannot.  MC says "Cannot stat [filename]  No such file or directory (2)"

If I type "rm" and the first character of the filename and hit tab, the 
system brings up the rest of the filename properly.  If I then hit 
enter, I get:
rm: cannot remove ‘filename’: No such file or directory

This result was unexpected, I don't know what that means:
touch: cannot touch ‘filename’: No such file or directory

How do I delete a file like this, that's simultaneously there and not 
there?  Is there any way to prevent this from recurring?

--
Greg Helledy
GRA, Incorporated
P:  +1 215-884-7500
F:  +1 215-884-1385
www.gra.aero
___________________________________________________________________________
Philadelphia Linux Users Group         --        http://www.phillylinux.org
Announcements - http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-announce
General Discussion  --   http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug