How can I remove old sandbox folders?

**Dennis N** · July 2nd, 2023

I would like to remove some obsolete folders from /run/user/1000/doc. I think these were sandboxes for flatpak applications. They are long done with but persist. I have been unable to remove them. Some information follows:

Code:

dmn@Kayleigh:/run/user/1000/doc$ tree
.
├── 596c6cde
├── b4dc3859
├── by-app
│** ├── com.github.dail8859.NotepadNext
│** │** └── ed999bb
│** ├── io.gitlab.adhami3310.Converter
│** │** ├── 596c6cde
│** │** ├── b4dc3859
│** │** ├── cdcce87
│** │** └── d19de800
│** ├── org.mozilla.firefox
│** │** └── dcd45c64
│** └── snap.snapd-desktop-integration
├── cdcce87
├── d19de800
├── dcd45c64
└── ed999bb

The folders in question are those with the random hex digit names.

Ownership and permissions:

Code:

dmn@Kayleigh:/run/user/1000/doc$ ls -l
total 0
drwx------ 2 dmn dmn 0 Dec 31  1969 596c6cde
drwx------ 2 dmn dmn 0 Dec 31  1969 b4dc3859
dr-x------ 2 dmn dmn 0 Dec 31  1969 by-app
drwx------ 2 dmn dmn 0 Dec 31  1969 cdcce87
drwx------ 2 dmn dmn 0 Dec 31  1969 d19de800
drwx------ 2 dmn dmn 0 Dec 31  1969 dcd45c64
drwx------ 2 dmn dmn 0 Dec 31  1969 ed999bb

My attempt to remove cdcce87

Code:

dmn@Kayleigh:/run/user/1000/doc$ rm -r cdcce87/
rm: cannot remove 'cdcce87/videos2.jpg': No such file or directory
rm: cannot remove 'cdcce87/': Operation not permitted

Here is contents of cdcce87: What does it mean?

Code:

dmn@Kayleigh:/run/user/1000/doc$ ls -l cdcce87/
ls: cannot access 'cdcce87/videos2.jpg': No such file or directory
total 0
-????????? ? ? ? ?            ? videos2.jpg

For some, there is no output for ls -l:

Code:

dmn@Kayleigh:/run/user/1000/doc$ ls -l ed999bb/
total 0

In the above case↑, the app which apparently used ed999bb was the Flatpak "NotepadNext". But, I uninstalled that app long ago. Still, it's abandoned sandbox remains and cannot be removed either - even with sudo, I get "Permission denied".

Again, my question is, how could I remove these sandboxes? My other computer has 80+ similar folders, and the number grows.

I had thought folders such as these were temporary and automatically removed when the file accessed is closed? That's not happening.

**idmbe** · July 2nd, 2023

access as root

Code:

sudo su

then you will have access to do it

**1fallen** · July 2nd, 2023

Originally Posted by Dennis N

Again, my question is, how could I remove these sandboxes? My other computer has 80+ similar folders, and the number grows.

I had thought folders such as these were temporary and automatically removed when the file accessed is closed? That's not happening.

Just remove ~/.local/share/flatpak/db and restart. The system will recreate ~/.local/share/flatpak/db and start to populate /run/user/1000/doc/ on the go, again, as document portal demands go on. Might be good to make a back-up first.

Code:

*sudo stat -f /run/user/1000/doc
[sudo] password for me: 
  File: "/run/user/1000/doc"
    ID: 0        Namelen: 0       Type: fuseblk
Block size: 0          Fundamental block size: 0
Blocks: Total: 0          Free: 0          Available: 0
Inodes: Total: 0          Free: 0
*me**~**

**Dennis N** · July 2nd, 2023

Originally Posted by idmbe

access as root

Code:

sudo su

then you will have access to do it

I did try sudo, but it made no difference.

**Dennis N** · July 2nd, 2023

Originally Posted by 1fallen

Just remove ~/.local/share/flatpak/db and restart. The system will recreate ~/.local/share/flatpak/db and start to populate /run/user/1000/doc/ on the go, again, as document portal demands go on. Might be good to make a back-up first.

Good. This solved the problem. Thanks.