How to remove a file that can be seen but no program can seem to touch?

Question

I'm trying to remove some obsolete backups, and deep inside one I've found a file 'cifs3bee' that I can find no way of removing. (And since I can't remove it, it's preventing the removal of the entire directory tree leading to it.) If I run ls -l I get:

total 1
-rwxr-xr-x 1 jgw87 root 307 Oct 30  2014 cifs3bee

And if I run file cifs3bee I sometimes get:

cifs3bee: writable, regular file, no read permission

but sometimes I get:

cifs3bee: ERROR: cannot open `cifs3bee' (No such file or directory)

which is basically the same error I always get if I run rm, chmod, lsattr, less, or just about any other command on it (even if I sudo up to root). I even tried 'echo "x" > cifs3bee' and still get a No such file or directory error, even though ls will continue to show the file and 'rm -rf' on the parent directory fails saying that the directory isn't empty.

What's going on here, and does anyone know how to work around it? I don't even know how this file got into my backup, since the name doesn't match the pattern I set up for which files to grab.

Edit: Sorry, forgot the system specs. This is me running Linux Mint 17, working on a remote Windows server mounted via Samba. (I don't know the server specs.)

Edit: I ran strace head cifs3bee, with the following output:

execve("/usr/bin/head", ["head", "cifs3bee"], [/* 69 vars */]) = 0
brk(0)                                  = 0x11f0000
access("/etc/ld.so.nohwcap", F_OK)      = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
mmap(NULL, 8192, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_ANONYMOUS, -1, 0) = 0x7f8ccbe8f000
access("/etc/ld.so.preload", R_OK)      = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
open("/usr/local/cuda-5.0/lib/tls/x86_64/libc.so.6", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
stat("/usr/local/cuda-5.0/lib/tls/x86_64", 0x7fff275aa470) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
open("/usr/local/cuda-5.0/lib/tls/libc.so.6", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
stat("/usr/local/cuda-5.0/lib/tls", 0x7fff275aa470) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
open("/usr/local/cuda-5.0/lib/x86_64/libc.so.6", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
stat("/usr/local/cuda-5.0/lib/x86_64", 0x7fff275aa470) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
open("/usr/local/cuda-5.0/lib/libc.so.6", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
stat("/usr/local/cuda-5.0/lib", 0x7fff275aa470) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
open("/home/jgw87/Software/root/lib/tls/x86_64/libc.so.6", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
stat("/home/jgw87/Software/root/lib/tls/x86_64", 0x7fff275aa470) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
open("/home/jgw87/Software/root/lib/tls/libc.so.6", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
stat("/home/jgw87/Software/root/lib/tls", 0x7fff275aa470) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
open("/home/jgw87/Software/root/lib/x86_64/libc.so.6", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
stat("/home/jgw87/Software/root/lib/x86_64", 0x7fff275aa470) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
open("/home/jgw87/Software/root/lib/libc.so.6", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
stat("/home/jgw87/Software/root/lib", {st_mode=S_IFDIR|0770, st_size=32768, ...}) = 0
open("/etc/ld.so.cache", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC) = 3
fstat(3, {st_mode=S_IFREG|0644, st_size=168641, ...}) = 0
mmap(NULL, 168641, PROT_READ, MAP_PRIVATE, 3, 0) = 0x7f8ccbe65000
close(3)                                = 0
access("/etc/ld.so.nohwcap", F_OK)      = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
open("/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC) = 3
read(3, "\177ELF\2\1\1\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\3\0>\0\1\0\0\0\320\37\2\0\0\0\0\0"..., 832) = 832
fstat(3, {st_mode=S_IFREG|0755, st_size=1840928, ...}) = 0
mmap(NULL, 3949248, PROT_READ|PROT_EXEC, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_DENYWRITE, 3, 0) = 0x7f8ccb8aa000
mprotect(0x7f8ccba65000, 2093056, PROT_NONE) = 0
mmap(0x7f8ccbc64000, 24576, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_FIXED|MAP_DENYWRITE, 3, 0x1ba000) = 0x7f8ccbc64000
mmap(0x7f8ccbc6a000, 17088, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_FIXED|MAP_ANONYMOUS, -1, 0) = 0x7f8ccbc6a000
close(3)                                = 0
mmap(NULL, 4096, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_ANONYMOUS, -1, 0) = 0x7f8ccbe64000
mmap(NULL, 8192, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_ANONYMOUS, -1, 0) = 0x7f8ccbe62000
arch_prctl(ARCH_SET_FS, 0x7f8ccbe62740) = 0
mprotect(0x7f8ccbc64000, 16384, PROT_READ) = 0
mprotect(0x608000, 4096, PROT_READ)     = 0
mprotect(0x7f8ccbe91000, 4096, PROT_READ) = 0
munmap(0x7f8ccbe65000, 168641)          = 0
brk(0)                                  = 0x11f0000
brk(0x1211000)                          = 0x1211000
open("/usr/lib/locale/locale-archive", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC) = 3
fstat(3, {st_mode=S_IFREG|0644, st_size=2919792, ...}) = 0
mmap(NULL, 2919792, PROT_READ, MAP_PRIVATE, 3, 0) = 0x7f8ccb5e1000
close(3)                                = 0
open("cifs3bee", O_RDONLY)              = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
open("/usr/share/locale/locale.alias", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC) = 3
fstat(3, {st_mode=S_IFREG|0644, st_size=2570, ...}) = 0
mmap(NULL, 4096, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_ANONYMOUS, -1, 0) = 0x7f8ccbe8e000
read(3, "# Locale name alias data base.\n#"..., 4096) = 2570
read(3, "", 4096)                       = 0
close(3)                                = 0
munmap(0x7f8ccbe8e000, 4096)            = 0
open("/usr/share/locale/en_US.UTF-8/LC_MESSAGES/coreutils.mo", O_RDONLY) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
open("/usr/share/locale/en_US.utf8/LC_MESSAGES/coreutils.mo", O_RDONLY) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
open("/usr/share/locale/en_US/LC_MESSAGES/coreutils.mo", O_RDONLY) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
open("/usr/share/locale/en.UTF-8/LC_MESSAGES/coreutils.mo", O_RDONLY) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
open("/usr/share/locale/en.utf8/LC_MESSAGES/coreutils.mo", O_RDONLY) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
open("/usr/share/locale/en/LC_MESSAGES/coreutils.mo", O_RDONLY) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
open("/usr/share/locale-langpack/en_US.UTF-8/LC_MESSAGES/coreutils.mo", O_RDONLY) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
open("/usr/share/locale-langpack/en_US.utf8/LC_MESSAGES/coreutils.mo", O_RDONLY) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
open("/usr/share/locale-langpack/en_US/LC_MESSAGES/coreutils.mo", O_RDONLY) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
open("/usr/share/locale-langpack/en.UTF-8/LC_MESSAGES/coreutils.mo", O_RDONLY) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
open("/usr/share/locale-langpack/en.utf8/LC_MESSAGES/coreutils.mo", O_RDONLY) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
open("/usr/share/locale-langpack/en/LC_MESSAGES/coreutils.mo", O_RDONLY) = 3
fstat(3, {st_mode=S_IFREG|0644, st_size=619, ...}) = 0
mmap(NULL, 619, PROT_READ, MAP_PRIVATE, 3, 0) = 0x7f8ccbe8e000
close(3)                                = 0
open("/usr/lib/charset.alias", O_RDONLY|O_NOFOLLOW) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
write(2, "head: ", 6head: )                   = 6
write(2, "cannot open \342\200\230cifs3bee\342\200\231 for r"..., 38cannot open ‘cifs3bee’ for reading) = 38
open("/usr/share/locale/en_US.UTF-8/LC_MESSAGES/libc.mo", O_RDONLY) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
open("/usr/share/locale/en_US.utf8/LC_MESSAGES/libc.mo", O_RDONLY) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
open("/usr/share/locale/en_US/LC_MESSAGES/libc.mo", O_RDONLY) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
open("/usr/share/locale/en.UTF-8/LC_MESSAGES/libc.mo", O_RDONLY) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
open("/usr/share/locale/en.utf8/LC_MESSAGES/libc.mo", O_RDONLY) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
open("/usr/share/locale/en/LC_MESSAGES/libc.mo", O_RDONLY) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
open("/usr/share/locale-langpack/en_US.UTF-8/LC_MESSAGES/libc.mo", O_RDONLY) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
open("/usr/share/locale-langpack/en_US.utf8/LC_MESSAGES/libc.mo", O_RDONLY) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
open("/usr/share/locale-langpack/en_US/LC_MESSAGES/libc.mo", O_RDONLY) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
open("/usr/share/locale-langpack/en.UTF-8/LC_MESSAGES/libc.mo", O_RDONLY) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
open("/usr/share/locale-langpack/en.utf8/LC_MESSAGES/libc.mo", O_RDONLY) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
open("/usr/share/locale-langpack/en/LC_MESSAGES/libc.mo", O_RDONLY) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
write(2, ": No such file or directory", 27: No such file or directory) = 27
write(2, "\n", 1
)                       = 1
close(1)                                = 0
close(2)                                = 0
exit_group(1)                           = ?
+++ exited with 1 +++

Unfortunately, I don't know how to interpret that. Any help?

Answer 1

First thought, I wonder if you might have a trailing space(s) on the file name. Test by typing ls "cifs and then tab to auto-complete (assuming you are on a Linux box, which is a big assumption of course). If this does not bear fruition try removing the file by its inode instead.

Good explanation of how to do so here: delete / remove files with inode number

Highlights of the process include
First get the inode for the file: ls -il

Then with the inode in hand try and remove the file:

find . -inum [inode-number] -exec rm -i {} \;</b>

Answer 2

You may still me able to mv that file around it's partition. Try to move it away. But in seems that's disk or filesystem error. Next step I would do is fsck .

Also, try 'strace echo "abcd" > file' and find out which syscall really generates the error like "no such file or directory" because if it not exist it should be created, so something else not exist like bash interpreter or parent directory or echo is not echo but alias.

Another possibility that something removes/restores file so you just not really lucky and it gets removed recreated in same time as you look onto it.

Another possibility is that something specific for filesystem as other guys properly pointed that presence of 'cifs' in file name points to this possibility.