What does # mean in filenames?

[dro...@my-deja.com]

Our SCO system appears to have a lot of seemingly duplicated files with
# signs in their names. Example:

temp
temp#
temp##

and so on.

What are these? Can I get rid of them?

Thanks,

Dale

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[Jean-Pierre Radley]

dro...@my-deja.com propounded (on Sat, Feb 03, 2001 at 06:59:38PM +0000):

| Our SCO system appears to have a lot of seemingly duplicated files with
| # signs in their names. Example:
|
| temp
| temp#
| temp##
|
| and so on.
|
| What are these? Can I get rid of them?

Why don't you look at their contents?

--
JP

[Dale Rose]

In article <2001020314...@jpradley.jpr.com>,

Temp was merely an example. There are quite a few of these file chains
and they are all identical. See the output below:

# l .mail*
-rw------- 1 root root 15 Oct 14 18:17 .mailrc@
-rw------- 1 root root 15 Oct 14 18:17 .mailrc#@
-rw------- 1 root root 15 Mar 26 1999 .mailrc##@
-rw------- 1 root root 15 Oct 14 18:17 .mailrc###@
-rw------- 1 root root 15 Mar 26 1999 .mailrc####@
# sum -lr .mail*
2138308728 1 .mailrc
2138308728 1 .mailrc#
2138308728 1 .mailrc##
2138308728 1 .mailrc###
2138308728 1 .mailrc####

Aside from differing time stamps they all appear to be the same. The
problem does not appear to be relegated merely to files, either. I
have directories do the same thing (pmd@, for one). Almost everything
in /etc is affected as well as other files scattered about.

[Jean-Pierre Radley]

Dale Rose propounded (on Sat, Feb 03, 2001 at 09:04:25PM +0000):

Why would it occur to you to run the sum command on a 15 byte file,
rather than just 'cat .mailrc*' ?

First, run l -Wv and see what they point to. Then get rid of the real
extra files, then and only then of those extra symlinks.

Are you letting the verification manager fix things?
Avoid that.

--
JP

[Bill Vermillion]

In article <95hkeo$fk3$1...@nnrp1.deja.com>, <dro...@my-deja.com> wrote:
>Our SCO system appears to have a lot of seemingly duplicated files with
># signs in their names. Example:

>temp
>temp#
>temp##
>
>and so on.
>
>What are these? Can I get rid of them?

As I recall these are backups/older versions. Sometimes they are
identical, other times they are not.

--
Bill Vermillion - bv @ wjv . com

[Roberto Zini]

These files get created when you perform a software/system
verify by making use of the custom command and force the
system to fix any discrepancies found; the trailing "#"
characters simply inform you that file was changed during
that procedure (eg, "temp" is the actual file and it should
be the good one - well, according to the internal database -
while "temp#" and "temp##" are old copies of the same files BUT
with incorrect ownerships/permissions/symlinks).

The system just adds a trailing "#" to give you the ability to
tell/examine/inspect the differences between the old and the new file.

Best,
Roberto
--
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Roberto Zini email : fr...@strhold.it
Technical Support Manager -- Strhold Sistemi EDP Reggio Emilia(ITALY)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
"Has anybody around here seen an aircraft carrier?"
(Pete "Maverick" Mitchell - Top Gun)

[Dale Rose]

> First, run l -Wv and see what they point to. Then get rid of the real
> extra files, then and only then of those extra symlinks.
>
> Are you letting the verification manager fix things?
> Avoid that.
>
> --
> JP
>

Running l -Wv shows all but one copy of each file linked to 5.0.6 while
one copy is linked to 5.0.4 for some reason.

I haven't used the verification manager for anything but our
administrator may have before he left. That may explain the extra #
files.

Unfortunately I ran /etc/custom -V symlinks today and it reported 4200+
broken links. I think there may be a more serious problem lurking
about I need to address before worrying about the extra # files.

Dale