Hosted Files That Are Impossible To Delete do you know which ones? :)

[anwiii 17]

i ran across something interesting and thought i would post on it. my first problem occured when i setup an rss reader on my website a long time ago called "carp". i even combined carp with "grouper". anyway, while i was cleaning out and revamping everything, i noticed i couldn't delete the "autocache" files in the carp folder and the grouper folder below my public_html. because i couldn't delete the files, i couldn't even delete the folder the files were in. ok. next, i was experimenting with SMF and messing around with themes. i created an sample theme called "theme1" to add to the already existing 3 other themes that are standard when installing sfm. anyway, i tried to delete that theme1 folder and no luck. everything inside gets deleted except for the images folder so i am stuck now with a theme1 folder that i cannot delete. since i was just testing smf(i kinda like it actually), i decided to uninstall to see if it that would help in deleting that folder. NOPE! so now i am stuck with three folders that i cannot delete :)so yesterday i write a support ticket and was told, even though the files are in my directories and i have the power to control their permissions, i do not own certain files. i guess the server owns them to where a user will be unable to delete certain files. i was told this is common with cms applications. anyway, i thought this was interesting. i never heard of that before. support told me to make a list, and they will delete the files for me. also, they were pretty quick. i wrote the ticket before i went to bed. when i woke up, i had my answer. in fact, the ticket was responded to a couple hours after writing it. i thought i would have gotten a reply by nik, but apparently, a girl named karen is helping out with the tickets now. anyway, i was really glad to recieve such prompt attention. it made me in a better mood even if i can't delete my own files haha.also, as a side not, i tried googling the problem and this problem seems to exist on other webhosts as well. i am writing this in case anyone else has the same problem i did. again, the solution is to write a support ticket and have someone on their end to delete the files.

[BuffaloHelp 24]

The Owner/Group assignment is higher than your privilege level causes some files to be out of reach when editing/deleting.This usually happens when a file is created internally, like installing a script and the script installation unpacks and write a new file using improper or older writing program. You can double check the Owner/Group policy by using a FTP client, i.e. FileZilla, and scrolling to the right most to see the Owner/Group value. Comparing to other files, Owner/Group that are different from files you can manipulate are out of your reach--created internally--and that can be removed only by higher permission level.If an analogy can be drawn, your hosting is shared hosting under a Linux system. Therefore, your hosting account (or can be viewed as your folder under the Linux system) is not able to delete system files of Linux system. Better put, it's like guest account or limited account of Windows logon trying to delete Programs files or directories. The hierarchy of the file structure and permission prevents from deleting files due to security permission level. When an internal script creates a file sometimes the security level excludes the original creator and the default user gains the permission.

[jlhaslip 4]

As Buffalohelp alluded to, the Ownership of the files does not belong to you for script installed files/folders.The Server created them and is the owner unless you use a script to alter the ownership or run an un-install script, that will remain as it is.I *think* I have a script which will delete script-added files such as this. PM me and I will search for it if you need the file ownership changed.

[truefusion 3]

Other people in these forums have had this "problem." The only way to delete the files is to run a script as the same user that "owns" the directories and files. Most likely you can delete the files by simply creating a PHP (or other supported server-side language) script and recursively unlink() each file, and rmdir() each directory, by accessing that script in your browser. By accessing it in your browser, the server should give the script being executed the same ownership as the files you can't delete.