RHEL 8.2 cannot change/remove /home directory

Question

In my RHEL 8.2 box I want to remove the disk space from /home (/dev/VGSYSTEM/LVHOME).

I umount /home, mount /dev/VGSYSTEM/LVHOME in /mnt and try to move the only home directory in /mnt to /home... but Operation not permitted

# umount /home
# mkdir /home/example
mkdir: cannot create directory '/home/example': Operation not permitted
# ls -ld /home
drwxr-xr-x. 2 root root 6 Sep 18  2020 /home
# getenforce
Disabled
# lsattr -l /home  # output is empty
# chmod 000 /home
chmod: changing permissions of '/home': Operation not permitted
# mkdir /example   # No error

The root file system type is XFS.

Any ideas?

update: this issue happens with /opt, too

If "/" were immutable, `mkdir /example` would have failed, wouldn't it? — Jdamian, Apr 06 '22 at 09:54
Yes, I missed that! Is /opt a separate mountpoint too? Can you provide the output of `cat /proc/self/mountinfo` — Matthew Ife, Apr 06 '22 at 10:04
Please don't edit the solution into your question, post it as an answer instead and accept it when you are allowed to. Otherwise the question will stay in the system as unsolved forever. — Gerald Schneider, Apr 06 '22 at 10:18

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Apr 06 '22 at 10:22

/home and /opt actually ARE immutable but I did not realize because I assumed lsattr -l /home and lsattr /home would show the attributes of /home -- big wrong assumption

lsattr -d /home /opt does show the actual attributes

# lsattr -d /home /opt
----i--------------- /home
----i--------------- /opt

RHEL 8.2 cannot change/remove /home directory

1 Answers1