Beefy Boxes and Bandwidth Generously Provided by pair Networks
Do you know where your variables are?
 
PerlMonks  

make install failing with text file busy error

by rmokri (Initiate)
on Dec 14, 2010 at 19:55 UTC ( [id://877148]=perlquestion: print w/replies, xml ) Need Help??

rmokri has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Have not been able to find solution to the problem with installing various perl modules that fail on the make install step with 'ERROR: Cannot unlink...: Text file busy'. Using perl 5.8.8 on HP-UX 11.31. Have not been able to locate posts that describe how to work around this problem.

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: make install failing with text file busy error
by hsmyers (Canon) on Dec 15, 2010 at 03:42 UTC
    The only thing that comes to mind is to make dead bang sure that absolutely nothing (you, process or otherwise) has the file in question in it's grips. I've yelled and screamed at my boxen only to discover hidden away under a layer of terminal windows that I'd be doing something that the OS would interpret as access and therefore a resulting error message of 'file busy'. That it is a text file is interesting but may or may not be of help. Is the file part of previous step(s) of the make? Some sort of temporary file? You might also determine if editing (out) the entry in the make file is enough to work around the problem. Another possible source of help might be to contact the author of the module to see if anything comes to mind. Module installs are not always a simple and straight forward process and you might be running up against some need that is unobvious and problematic on your machine.

    --hsm

    "Never try to teach a pig to sing...it wastes your time and it annoys the pig."
      Thanks! I scoured the system for evidence of the file being used without finding it in use anywhere. The output from the fuser command did not show anyone using the file either (which I didn't expect as I am the only person on this server). What DID work is renaming the file in question using the mv command and then running the make install step. Not sure how risky this particular move is but it did get me past the obstruction this was causing.
Re: make install failing with text file busy error
by afoken (Chancellor) on Dec 15, 2010 at 10:38 UTC

    Note that "text file" may be a little bit misleading here. It does not mean a file containing ASCII text, like e.g. a README document. "text" in this context means executable machine code, i.e. a (binary) program or a library used by a program. Look what file can't be unlinked, and search it in the list of running programs (top / ps). Terminate that program after you have made sure that doing so won't do any harm to the system.

    Alexander

    --
    Today I will gladly share my knowledge and experience, for there are no sweeter words than "I told you so". ;-)
      Thank you for the suggestion to look for anything using the file which I did with great vigor. As I did not find any process using this file nor anyone else using it, I decided to try the last resort step of renaming the file and trying the make install which worked!

Log In?
Username:
Password:

What's my password?
Create A New User
Domain Nodelet?
Node Status?
node history
Node Type: perlquestion [id://877148]
Approved by Corion
Front-paged by MidLifeXis
help
Chatterbox?
and the web crawler heard nothing...

How do I use this?Last hourOther CB clients
Other Users?
Others perusing the Monastery: (5)
As of 2024-03-29 14:48 GMT
Sections?
Information?
Find Nodes?
Leftovers?
    Voting Booth?

    No recent polls found