CLRI(1M)

NAME
clri - clear i-node

SYNOPSIS
clri filesystem i-number ...

DESCRIPTION
Clri writes zeros on the i-nodes with the decimal i-numbers on the filesystem. After clri, any blocks in the affected file will show up as `missing' in an icheck(1) of the filesystem.

Read and write permission is required on the specified file system device. The i-node becomes allocatable.

The primary purpose of this routine is to remove a file which for some reason appears in no directory. If it is used to zap an i-node which does appear in a directory, care should be taken to track down the entry and remove it. Otherwise, when the i-node is reallocated to some new file, the old entry will still point to that file. At that point removing the old entry will destroy the new file. The new entry will again point to an unallocated i-node, so the whole cycle is likely to be repeated again and again.

SEE ALSO
icheck(1)

BUGS
If the file is open, clri is likely to be ineffective.