Using rmtree from File::Path to remove a directory tree on a unix platfrom with an automount directory. The directory is then re-created for clean use.

However the rmtree command can sometime be to quick for the NFS system and fail to delete the toplevel directory as it contains '.NFS****' files when it attempt 'rmdir'

This does not really effect the use of the directory, as the contents has been removed. However I don't want the error message to be displayed, as it will confuse the users into thinking that there is a problem...

File::Path Module rmtree sub

sub rmtree {
    my($roots, $verbose, $safe) = @_;
    my(@files);
    my($count) = 0;
    $verbose ||= 0;
    $safe ||= 0;

    if ( defined($roots) && length($roots) ) {
      $roots = [$roots] unless ref $roots;
    }
    else {
      carp "No root path(s) specified\n";
      return 0;
    }

    my($root);
    foreach $root (@{$roots}) {
        if ($Is_MacOS) {
        $root = ":$root" if $root !~ /:/;
        $root =~ s#([^:])\z#$1:#;
    } else {
        $root =~ s#/\z##;
    }
    (undef, undef, my $rp) = lstat $root or next;
    $rp &= 07777;    # don't forget setuid, setgid, sticky bits
    if ( -d _ ) {
        # notabene: 0777 is for making readable in the first place,
        # it's also intended to change it to writable in case we have
        # to recurse in which case we are better than rm -rf for 
        # subtrees with strange permissions
        chmod(0777, ($Is_VMS ? VMS::Filespec::fileify($root) : $root))
          or carp "Can't make directory $root read+writeable: $!"
        unless $safe;

        if (opendir my $d, $root) {
        @files = readdir $d;
        closedir $d;
        }
        else {
            carp "Can't read $root: $!";
        @files = ();
        }

        # Deleting large numbers of files from VMS Files-11 filesystem
+s
        # is faster if done in reverse ASCIIbetical order 
        @files = reverse @files if $Is_VMS;
        ($root = VMS::Filespec::unixify($root)) =~ s#\.dir\z## if $Is_
+VMS;
        if ($Is_MacOS) {
        @files = map("$root$_", @files);
        } else {
        @files = map("$root/$_", grep $_!~/^\.{1,2}\z/s,@files);
        }
        $count += rmtree(\@files,$verbose,$safe);
        if ($safe &&
        ($Is_VMS ? !&VMS::Filespec::candelete($root) : !-w $root)) {
        print "skipped $root\n" if $verbose;
        next;
        }
        chmod 0777, $root
          or carp "Can't make directory $root writeable: $!"
        if $force_writeable;
        print "rmdir $root\n" if $verbose;
        if (rmdir $root) {
        ++$count;
        }
        else {
        carp "Can't remove directory $root: $!";
        chmod($rp, ($Is_VMS ? VMS::Filespec::fileify($root) : $root))
            or carp("and can't restore permissions to "
                    . sprintf("0%o",$rp) . "\n");
        }
    }
    else { 
        if ($safe &&
        ($Is_VMS ? !&VMS::Filespec::candelete($root)
                 : !(-l $root || -w $root)))
        {
        print "skipped $root\n" if $verbose;
        next;
        }
        chmod 0666, $root
          or carp "Can't make file $root writeable: $!"
        if $force_writeable;
        print "unlink $root\n" if $verbose;
        # delete all versions under VMS
        for (;;) {
        unless (unlink $root) {
            carp "Can't unlink file $root: $!";
            if ($force_writeable) {
            chmod $rp, $root
                or carp("and can't restore permissions to "
                        . sprintf("0%o",$rp) . "\n");
            }
            last;
        }
        ++$count;
        last unless $Is_VMS && lstat $root;
        }
    }
    }

    $count;
}
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So how can I modify the rmtree function to allow it check and wait for the .nfs**** files to be removed by the filesystem?

--
The Snowman
snowman@notreally.co.uk