[GRASS-dev] Re: remove(dir) fails on Windows

[Roger Bivand]

Radim Blazek <radim.blazek <at> gmail.com> writes:

> 
> On 9/22/06, Radim Blazek <radim.blazek <at> gmail.com> wrote:
> > On 9/22/06, Radim Blazek <radim.blazek <at> gmail.com> wrote:
> > > Hi.
> > > remove() directory fails on Windows so that vectors cannot be deleted
> > > without error. Patch for lib/vector/Vlib/map.c is attached.
> > > IMPORTANT!
> >
> > Much worse is that a vector open in QGIS cannot be deleted.
> > Open file on Windows cannot be deleted nor moved.
> > That is very bad because it is very common to run a module
> > again and again and watch results on display.
> > I don't have any idea what could be done.
> 

http://www.mkssoftware.com/docs/man3/remove.3.asp

says that:

Windows NT/2000/XP/2003 does not let you delete a directory if a user has a lock
on it. Any user that is in that directory has a lock on it. All locks to a
directory must be resolved before remove() on a directory can be successful.

There are also indications that the directory should also be empty, from rmdir():

The rmdir() function removes an empty directory whose name is given by pathname.
The directory must not have any entries other than dot (.) and dot-dot (..).

If the directory's link count becomes zero and no process has the directory open
or locked, the directory space is freed and the directory is no longer
accessible. If one or more processes have the directory open or locked (for
example, by having the directory as the current working directory), rmdir()
fails and sets errno to EBUSY. 

Is this what is going on here?

Roger

> Output vector is now frozen when a module is started in GRASS tools
> and thawn if finished with success. It is not perfect, does not
> work from shell.
> 
> Radim
> 
> > Radim
> >
>