Cannot delete a .sparsebundle on / with permissions drwxr-xr-x@ 6 root wheel

Question

Even running commands as sudo I cannot change the permissions or delete the folder.

sh-3.2# xattr -l filename.sparsebundle/
com.apple.FinderInfo:
00000000  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 20 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |........ .......|
00000010  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|

OS version

sh-3.2# sw_vers -productVersion
10.15.1

Adding requested information.

sh-3.2# ls -al
total 11
drwxr-xr-x   24 root  admin   768 Oct 31 00:49 .
drwxr-xr-x   24 root  admin   768 Oct 31 00:49 ..
-rw-rw-r--    1 root  admin     0 Aug 25 00:20 .DS_Store
lrwxr-xr-x    1 root  admin    36 Oct  8 13:23 .VolumeIcon.icns -> System/Volumes/Data/.VolumeIcon.icns
----------    1 root  admin     0 Aug 25 00:20 .file
drwx------  124 root  admin  3968 Oct 31 00:55 .fseventsd
drwxr-xr-x    2 root  wheel    64 Aug 25 00:20 .vol
drwxrwxr-x+  80 root  admin  2560 Dec 12 19:27 Applications
drwxr-xr-x   70 root  wheel  2240 Oct 31 00:51 Library
drwxrwxrwt    3 root  wheel    96 Dec 15  2018 Secomba
drwxr-xr-x@   8 root  wheel   256 Sep 29 22:23 System
drwxr-xr-x    5 root  admin   160 Sep 29 22:22 Users
drwxr-xr-x    5 root  wheel   160 Dec 12 22:04 Volumes
drwxr-xr-x@   6 root  wheel   192 Oct  8 08:27 filename.sparsebundle
drwxr-xr-x@  38 root  wheel  1216 Oct 31 00:49 bin
drwxr-xr-x    2 root  wheel    64 Aug 25 00:24 cores
dr-xr-xr-x    3 root  wheel  5579 Dec 12 21:39 dev
lrwxr-xr-x@   1 root  admin    11 Oct  8 13:18 etc -> private/etc
lrwxr-xr-x    1 root  wheel    25 Dec 12 21:39 home -> /System/Volumes/Data/home
drwxr-xr-x    3 root  wheel    96 Oct  8 13:27 opt
drwxr-xr-x    6 root  wheel   192 Oct 31 00:49 private
drwxr-xr-x@  64 root  wheel  2048 Oct 31 00:49 sbin
lrwxr-xr-x@   1 root  admin    11 Oct  8 13:23 tmp -> private/tmp
drwxr-xr-x@  11 root  wheel   352 Oct  8 13:23 usr
lrwxr-xr-x@   1 root  admin    11 Oct  8 13:23 var -> private/var

Error when attempting to delete

sh-3.2# rm -rf filename.sparsebundle/
rm: filename.sparsebundle//token: Read-only file system
....

Checking extended attributes

sh-3.2# ls -laOe filename.sparsebundle
total 256
drwxr-xr-x@  6 root  wheel  -         192 Oct  8 08:27 .
drwxr-xr-x  24 root  admin  sunlnk    768 Oct 31 00:49 ..
-rw-r--r--   1 root  wheel  -         499 Oct  8 08:27 Info.bckup
-rw-r--r--   1 root  wheel  -         499 Oct  8 08:27 Info.plist
drwxr-xr-x  85 root  wheel  -        2720 Oct  8 08:27 bands
-rw-r--r--   1 root  wheel  -      122368 Oct  8 08:27 token

Answer 1

sh-3.2# rm -rf filename.sparsebundle/
rm: filename.sparsebundle//token: Read-only file system

The sparsebundle probably resides on the read-only mounted system volume of a Catalina boot volume.

1. Boot to Recovery Mode.
2. (Unlock/mount your main Catalina boot volume with Disk Utility if it is encrypted)
3. Open Terminal in the menubar (Utilities > Terminal)
4. cd to the root of the main system volume (e.g. cd /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/)

5. List the content with ls -la to check whether filename.sparsebundle resides there.

   

6. Remove the sparsebundle with rm -dR filename.sparsebundle.
7. Reboot to your main volume.

Answer 2

Apple has filesystem ACL and other restrictions that are more restrictive than the traditional POSIX permission model.

ls -laOe filename.sparsebundle

The above command will list out the details of your directory so you can start to decide if you will override them and how you would do that.

If you get the contents of the folder listing, you’ll have to use ls -laOe / and sort out the entries for the sparsebundle