From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG  Mon May 28 21:06:45 2012
Return-Path: <owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG>
Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34])
	by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id CEF1D1065806
	for <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>;
	Mon, 28 May 2012 21:06:44 +0000 (UTC)
	(envelope-from bonomi@mail.r-bonomi.com)
Received: from mail.r-bonomi.com (mx-out.r-bonomi.com [204.87.227.120])
	by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 1427B8FC19
	for <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>;
	Mon, 28 May 2012 21:06:43 +0000 (UTC)
Received: (from bonomi@localhost)
	by mail.r-bonomi.com (8.14.4/rdb1) id q4SL8fqJ090973
	for freebsd-questions@freebsd.org; Mon, 28 May 2012 16:08:41 -0500 (CDT)
Date: Mon, 28 May 2012 16:08:41 -0500 (CDT)
From: Robert Bonomi <bonomi@mail.r-bonomi.com>
Message-Id: <201205282108.q4SL8fqJ090973@mail.r-bonomi.com>
To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
In-Reply-To: <4FC3CC89.1000504@dreamchaser.org>
Subject: Re: removing /var/empty on a non-system disk
X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5
Precedence: list
List-Id: User questions <freebsd-questions.freebsd.org>
List-Unsubscribe: <http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions>, 
	<mailto:freebsd-questions-request@freebsd.org?subject=unsubscribe>
List-Archive: <http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-questions>
List-Post: <mailto:freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>
List-Help: <mailto:freebsd-questions-request@freebsd.org?subject=help>
List-Subscribe: <http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions>, 
	<mailto:freebsd-questions-request@freebsd.org?subject=subscribe>
X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 28 May 2012 21:06:45 -0000

h
> From owner-freebsd-questions@freebsd.org  Mon May 28 14:10:55 2012
> Date: Mon, 28 May 2012 13:05:45 -0600
> From: Gary Aitken <freebsd@dreamchaser.org.r-bonomi.com>
> To: Polytropon <freebsd@edvax.de>
> Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
> Subject: Re: removing /var/empty on a non-system disk
>
> On 5/25/2012 4:01 PM, Polytropon wrote:
> >
> > I should have mentioned that I did the (successful) test
> > logging in as root (real console login). If you use "su -"
> > or "su root", the effect should be the same. You can always
> > check the success of your operation with the "ls -lo" command.
>
> Nope.  That was the problem.  I had logged in on the vty as normal user 
> and done su root.  Had to back all the way out and log in on the vty as 
> root to make it work.

I'm going to guess that you did 'su root', not 'su - root'.  The two commands
are *NOT* identical.   'su root' does not run the root 'login' scripts; thus
environment variables (including path, user, logname etc.) are *not* set as
they are on root login -- this causes some 'am i root' tests to fail.  OTOH,
'su - root' should be equivalent to a root login in all respects.

NOTE; there will be issues if the 'working directory' of a parent process is 
the directory you are trying to delete.