Error when immediately deleting a new folder

  • 7004693
  • 19-Oct-2009
  • 27-Apr-2012

Environment

Novell Client for Windows 2000/XP/2003 4.91 Support Pack 5 File Access

Situation

Intermittently, deleting a subdirectory located on a network volume immediately 
after creating it fails. An error is displayed:

Cannot remove folder <foldername>. It is being used by another person or program.

Retrying the operation after a few seconds results in the delete operation succeeding.

Resolution

Remove/change the anti-virus application.

When a virus scanning application notices a new path, it accesses that path to
complete its task of examining it for the presence of a virus. While it is holding
the folder open, it cannot be deleted. After a moment, it completes its work and
releases the file, enabling it to be deleted.

Additional Information

A Process Monitor log reveals a sharing violation for the New Folder or Temp
subdirectories. The relevant operations are:

Create file "New Folder"
Rename "New Folder" to "temp"
Delete "temp" - Sharing Violation

A LAN trace shows the following:

Create "New Folder"
Rename "New Folder" to "temp"

No "Delete File" NCP is seen.

The absence of this NCP on the wire for the rename is due to the "sharing violation"
having been determined within the Novell Client itself; i.e. some other file handle
already open on the machine (and maybe even by the same process) still has the file
open in a mode that excludes sharing the access required for renaming the file.