clri(8)

clri8

Clear an inode

Usage

clri special_device inode_number ...

Overview

The clri utility is obsoleted for normal file system repair work by fsck(8).

The clri utility zeroes out the inodes with the specified inode number(s) on the file system residing on the given special_device. The fsck(8) utility is usually run after clri to reclaim the zeroed inode(s) and the blocks previously claimed by those inode(s). Both read and write permission are required on the specified special_device.

The primary purpose of this routine is to remove a file which for some reason is not being properly handled by fsck(8). Once removed, it is anticipated that fsck(8) will be able to clean up the resulting mess.

Releases

87 releases since FreeBSD 2.0.5-RELEASE; the text changed 46 times.

  1. 2.0.5
  2. 2.1.5–2.1.7.1
  3. 2.2.2–2.2.6
  4. 2.2.7–2.2.8
  5. 2.2.9
  6. 3.0–3.2
  7. 3.3–3.5.1
  8. 4.0–4.2
  9. 4.3
  10. 4.4–4.6.2
  11. 4.7
  12. 4.8–4.11
  13. 5.0–5.2.1
  14. 5.3–6.3
  15. 6.4
  16. 7.0
  17. 7.1
  18. 7.2
  19. 7.3
  20. 7.4
  21. 8.0
  22. 8.1
  23. 8.2
  24. 8.3
  25. 8.4
  26. 9.0
  27. 9.1
  28. 9.2
  29. 9.3
  30. 10.0
  31. 10.1
  32. 10.2
  33. 10.3
  34. 10.4
  35. 11.0
  36. 11.1
  37. 11.2
  38. 11.3
  39. 11.4
  40. 12.0
  41. 12.1
  42. 12.2
  43. 12.3
  44. 12.4
  45. 13.0–13.2
  46. 13.3–14.5
  47. 15.0–16.0

History

The clri utility first appeared in Version 6 AT&T UNIX.

Bugs

If the file is open, the work of clri will be lost when the inode is written back to disk from the inode cache.

From base 16.0-CURRENT-20261027-61c70dc16a79 in FreeBSD 16.0-CURRENT (2026-10-27). Parsed by carta from the page's mdoc source.