Linux labs: Fixing issues with 'fish' shell in the home directory

How to fix a common problem for users of the 'fish' shell on the linux labs.

If a user has an error in their terminal that looks something like the following:

error: Unable to rename file from '/filespace/b/bucky/.config/fish/fishd.tmp.RDqhYw' to '/filespace/b/bucky/.config/fish/fish_variables': Device or resource busy

Then they are likely using `fish` as their login shell for the Linux lab machines and are having errors with their NFS-mounted home directories. A fix for this issue is as follows (run the following commands, one by one, from a terminal that is NOT currently running the `fish` shell):

  • $ tmphome=$(mktemp -d)
  • $ export REAL_HOME=$HOME
  • $ HOME=$tmphome fish
  • > $ cp $HOME/.config/fish/fish_variables $REAL_HOME/.config/fish/fish_variables
  • > $ exit
  • $ rm -rf $tmphome
  • $ fish

Then everything should work without any errors.




Keywords:fish shell linux lab home directory homedir friendly interactive "Device or resource busy"   Doc ID:8371
Owner:Noel K.Group:Computer-Aided Engineering
Created:2008-10-21 19:00 CDTUpdated:2022-12-08 13:24 CDT
Sites:Computer-Aided Engineering
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