mac osx question
 

k guys, i've tried everything and I need some help.

about once a month since I got my new mac g4 powerbook i have this problem:

when I download sit files (this only happens with sit's) sometimes i cannot delete them. I try to put them in the trash and it says that they are being used. The fact is, they are Not being used... I have had one on my desk top (i was downloading a midi program and halfway through it froze) for a week now. I have tried to restart, shut down, delete cookies / temp files, relaunch finder, boot with mac disk, boot os 9: nothing works. The last time this happened I called mac on the phone and they had no clue why this happens to me. They got me to go into apple script and code it out, but there has to be an easier way as i don't remember the script.

help?

ps: I have to say the osx is the best op sys i have ever used, and no one else I know with macs has ever had this problem. Or have they??

langer,
I've never run into ANYTHING resembling that, but there's no doubt a process somewhere is hung up. Either that, or there's a permissions problem with the file somehow that causes it to appear to be used by the system or something. Which build of x are you running? ie: Jaguar, or the original x, or a panther beta???? I've had a few times when something would hang under Jaguar, and I had to completely power down the box and re-power it, but that's happened maybe twice in a couple of years. You might consider re-installing, as it's also possible that some module of the OS has become corrupt, but in theory that shouldn't be likely either. I'll follow this thread with great interest, as we have a total of 6 osX machines here at the house , and I'd sure want to know if that ever came up as an issue here. :-)

i have osx ver 10.2.8
original x, maybe Jaguar would help?

one of the reasons i have been so boggled by this is because i have never heard of it happening before to anyone, and even the people at mac that i talked to had no idea what was happening.

i would be great at testing software, i always find the weirdest bugs: yet they always mess me up. it would be great to be paid at what happens anyways. the stories I have for things that happened when i used windows...

I had a similar problem with files I copied onto the computer through SMB file shares. I fixed it by enabling sharing on the computer and then connecting from another machine and deleting the files I could delete locally. You can also reboot directly to the console, login as root, and use RM to try and remove the files/dirs manually.

Logging in as root after directly booting to the console is almost guaranteed to work. The catch being root is disabled by default... it's to late for me to go in more detail. I will come back to this tommorow.

launch terminal (/Applicatoins/Utilities/Terminal.app) and type rm ~/Path/To/File.sit

This is the unix delete command, be VERY careful. The safe way is to type 'rm ' then drag the file over the terminal window and it will complete the path to the file for you. This should delete the file no questions asked (also why you need to be careful)

Go to versiontracker.com - there are utilities to take care of this problem (I believe it'll turn out to be permissions related).

Alternatively you can enable root using Netinfo. Just be sure to disable it when you're done.

Do you have the latest Stuffit? I think it was just revised, but I don't remember what the issues were with it. Also do a repair permissions, if you haven't recently.

k, heres another messed up thing. When I do that it says the file does not exsist, yet I am looking at it.
edit: i restarted but still it says this file does not exsist

yup, it must be a friggin permissions problem. i went into rm (etc etc) and it said I do no have sufficient permission to this file.

I haven't a clue how to do a permissions repair and / or restore myself as complete dictator of my desktop. What do I do?

ps: thanks so much guys :) that file would have sat there forever. well, its still there now, but not for long i hope.

ahhh, right after i typed the last message it disappeared!
right after saying i wasn't aloud to erase it...

at least its gone. yessss.

so, how do i fix my permissions?

ps: thanks again!

Run Disk Utility, permission fixing is one of the options in there. Requires an Admin password.

Juan,
Thanks. In all my years using mac, and having x since inception, it never occured to me to just drag a file from the desktop into the console window... I've always spent the stupid time typing out the path! Dammit, it hurts to be stupid some days!!!!!!

make sure the .sit file is unmounted

i had this problem

To see permissions in the GUI, Right-click or CTRL-click on the file, choose "Show Info", and click on the "Ownership & Permissions" triangle. There you see the permissions displayed graphically.

It's the simple things ;)

If you have problems deleting files try repairing the permissions as suggested above. Another option which works for me is running the sudo command - it gives you temporary root privilege and works on stubborn files. For example:

sudo rm *.sit

Would erase the SIT files in the current folder.

Be careful with sudo! It's a big sword..I once erased my master password when trying to uninstall fink. Whoopsies-there goes the whole .bin, not the part I was supposed to remove! :) But I don't know what I'm doing yet. It was a silly thing to do in retrospect, but sudo leaves you free to screw up to the max if you are determined. But that's just me..He He

I have had the same problems quite a few times with one of the guys in the office. He always seems to download files (normally sit, but sometime movs) that won't delete.

Sudo rm ~/Path/To/File.sit

has always worked for me.

I would much rather use sudo than enable the root user as I've seen suggested by some people (not necessarily at TFP).

Like Windows' Registry Editor, use sudo sparingly and with some prudence.

By avoiding use of the wildcard (ie: *) you'll avoid deleting more than you intended to.

Good advice. Also worth noteing the ~/ in Jerry's example above is a unix shortcut that means "path to your home folder".