06-28-2004, 07:19 PM

I have a file on my desktop that won't let me move it to the trash. When I attempt to it says that it's being used in another application and that I'm not allowed to move it. But there are no other apps even open. I've restarted my comp. and it still won't let me delete the file. Any suggestions?

06-28-2004, 09:33 PM

Several ways to approach this. I'd first look in the finder > applications > utilities > terminal and type top and see if some process is listed as running associated with that file. PID = process ID and if there is one you can end it with kill (PID)

06-28-2004, 09:40 PM

below is what was shown when i typed "top" into the terminal...I don't know if any of these are associated with the file or not? it's a mpeg quicktime file...any suggestions? (again)


PID COMMAND %CPU TIME #TH #PRTS #MREGS RPRVT RSHRD RSIZE VSIZE
547 top 9.0% 0:12.01 1 14 17 208K 320K 504K 13.6M
546 tcsh 0.0% 0:00.04 1 10 15 344K 560K 788K 5.73M
545 login 0.0% 0:00.49 1 12 33 244K 372K 568K 13.7M
544 Terminal 10.0% 0:04.23 3 60 111 1.41M 5.98M+ 6.22M+ 66.9M+
543 SecurityAg 0.0% 0:00.50 1 54 91 1008K 4.29M 3.41M 62.9M
542 iChat 0.0% 0:56.34 3 129 280 4.26M 7.75M 9.19M 82.1M
529 Safari 1.8% 21:51.59 7 121 966 74.4M 16.6M 69.1M 231M
526 Internet E 3.6% 7:45.30 7 85 340 15.2M 19.9M 19.5M 121M
525 lookupd 0.0% 0:08.86 2 32 47 380K 428K 632K 15.1M
409 httpd 0.0% 0:00.00 1 8 237 0K 484K 72K 45.0M
408 httpd 0.0% 0:00.00 1 8 237 0K 484K 72K 45.0M
407 httpd 0.0% 0:00.01 1 8 237 0K 484K 72K 45.0M
406 httpd 0.0% 0:00.01 1 8 237 0K 484K 72K 45.0M
405 httpd 0.0% 0:00.00 1 8 237 0K 484K 72K 45.0M
404 httpd 0.0% 0:03.10 1 8 237 16K 484K 112K 45.0M

06-28-2004, 10:56 PM

what does the "lookupd" and "httpd" mean? any idea?

06-28-2004, 11:27 PM

lookupd is tool to query netinfo and other configurations I'm not sure what the httpd entries are. Have you tried deleting the quicktime file as root?

06-28-2004, 11:27 PM

how do I go about deleting it as root?

06-28-2004, 11:32 PM

Have you enabled root user? Never be on line as root Open NetInfo Manager, located in Applications > Utilities.
Choose Security > Enable Root User and type a password for the root account. You may need to type an administrator password to make these changes.
Choose Apple menu > Log Out.
Choose Other in the Login window, type root in the Name field, and the root password in the Password field.

06-28-2004, 11:47 PM

there's no where for me to choose "security" once inside of utilities...

06-28-2004, 11:58 PM

Open NetInfo Manager

06-29-2004, 12:05 AM

I thank you for taking the time to try and help me out, thanks. But I'm still lost. I opened NetInfo Manager, but didn't know what to do next. I'm totally lost here...

06-29-2004, 12:16 AM

In there there should be a security and an option to enable root user, I can't see what to look at anymore as I have done that right after I got my Mac

06-29-2004, 12:25 AM

I'm not seeing it...do you know of any other way to delete files?

06-29-2004, 08:36 PM

If it's still there - here: finder applications utilities terminal there type sudo rm -r (no return yet) then drag the file to terminal then return, you are then prompted for password, i there is no root user the admin password should work

07-01-2004, 01:14 AM

i just tried that, and it didn't work...here's what it says:

rm: illegal option -- /
usage: rm [-f | -i] [-dPRrvW] file ...
unlink file

any other ideas?

07-01-2004, 11:15 AM

What is the name of the file you are trying to delete.

It appears from your post you are trying to delete a file with a minus sign at the beginning of the file name.

Here is what you do. sudo rm -f \-filename or sudo rm -f "-filename".

If you are deleting a directory then use the -r option. The -f option is just saying remove the file with prompting because of permissions. The backslash is saying ignoring the normal how the system see a minus sign.

So in short sudo rm -rf \-directoryname or sudo -f \-filename.