clri(1M)                                                 clri(1M)



     NAME
          clri - clear i-node

     SYNOPSIS
          /etc/clri file-system i-number ...

     DESCRIPTION
          clri writes zeros on the bytes occupied by the i-node
          numbered i-number and increments the inode generation count.
          file-system must be a special file name referring to a
          device containing a file system.  After clri is executed,
          any blocks in the affected file will show up as ``missing''
          in an fsck(1M) of the file-system.  This command should only
          be used in emergencies and extreme care should be exercised.

          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.

     EXAMPLE
               clri /dev/yyyy n

          where ``yyyy'' is a legitimate system device name, and ``n''
          is the inode number to be cleared, will cause inode numbered
          "n" for device /dev/yyyy to be cleared to 64-bytes of 0s.

          WARNING:  this instruction should be used with caution.

     FILES
          /etc/clri

     SEE ALSO
          fsck(1M), fsdb(1M), ncheck(1M), fs(4).

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










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