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files disappeared
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 files disappeared - Oct. 4, '06, 6:31:23 PM
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Rodney
Posts: 3695
Joined: Jul. 9, '02,
From: /Tools lab
Status: offline
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This is a story about files "disappearing". Not one or two or two dozen files.
About 14,000+ files disappearing. Hundreds of applications!
I was working on the files yesterday and then today the whole source tree
was gone completely. A real heart stopping moment. Where did they go?
Was I so zoned-out that I did something super-silly like "rm -rf *" ?
Weeks of work gone? really gone?! Did someone break in and remove the files?
Stopped heart restarts at too many beats per minute.
Reviewing the logs I noticed no odd logins (though the VPN creates several
odd ones at regular intervals). I noticed that I'd done a test install of
a package (not released). Did I have the package do some cleaup when it
was uninstalled (part of the test). A check of the package showed no.
The package did create, if the it did not already exist, a new directory.
But this package had been run several times before over the past couple of
weeks. I looked and saw the directory there with nothing in it. Interestingly
enough all of the files that were missing were in a sub-directory of a directoy
with a similar name. Just the case was different... I found the potential answer.
A check with "ls -li" showed the inode numbers of the two directories
was the same. Somehow, something had removed from the registry the ObCaseInsensitive
entry. This caused all stat() calls to resolve as case insensitive. The result of
this made it seem as if thousands of files had vanished.
By restoring the ObCaseInsensitive entry (set to 0x0) & rebooting, my missing files
all re-appeared as they had originally been just the day before.
Now a follow-up "ls -li" showed the two directories with different inodes.
Recorded for any other poor soul who gets the same problem 
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RE: files disappeared - Oct. 12, '06, 1:52:35 PM
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gwojan
Posts: 28
Joined: Apr. 28, '04,
Status: online
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Rodney,
Have you noticed that Windows Update patches (ala Patch Tuesday) for some reason resets ObCaseInsensitive to 1?
This has been driving me crazy for the last several months. I couldn't figure out how ObCaseInsensitive was getting reset -- now I know. <sigh>
Might you have any contacts at MS that could shed some light on this? It's gonna get really old making sure the value is reset post patch day because the system needs a reboot once it's changed back.
--Greg
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RE: files disappeared - Oct. 12, '06, 2:31:29 PM
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Rodney
Posts: 3695
Joined: Jul. 9, '02,
From: /Tools lab
Status: offline
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That for figuring that out Greg.
That makes sense now that dot is connected.
Some users won't notice until their next reboot which could be days
or weeks later because the patches don't always need a reboot.
nasty, just plain nasty.
I'm sending e-mail to a Program Manager & crew now.
If I hear anything back I'll let you know.
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RE: files disappeared - Oct. 13, '06, 12:21:30 PM
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Rodney
Posts: 3695
Joined: Jul. 9, '02,
From: /Tools lab
Status: offline
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The dev group is asking if anyone knows which update (or updates)
are doing the ObCaseInsensitive change. They want to hunt down the
group doing this.
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