Getting error while opening /etc/profile: Error reading lock file /etc/.profile.swp: Not enough data read

Question

I am getting this error while opening /etc/profile file using nano.

Error reading lock file /etc/.profile.swp: Not enough data read

How can I fix this?

which version of nano are you using? Please type nano --version — Michele, Jul 25 '17 at 09:33
This might be part of a known (and now resolved) bug in nano - do other text editors work with this file? You may need to upgrade your nano version to resolve depending on a the results of a nano --version. — The Pizza Overlord, Jul 25 '17 at 09:37
Interesting. Can you run the following to see what/who else is accessing the swap file, and copy the output here please? - vi /etc/.profile.swp. — The Pizza Overlord, Jul 26 '17 at 14:37
This swap file is only access by me to set the paths of java, hive, hadoop, pig etc. I'm able to open and edit the file using gedit, but not with nano. — Vaibhav Phadke, Jul 28 '17 at 14:51

score 58 · Answer 1 · edited Sep 21 '17 at 09:25

58

Try to remove the hidden file .[yourfilename].swp, which is stored in the same folder as the file that you are trying to open.
In your case try the shell command rm /etc/.profile.swp.

This issue also occurs with nano 2.7.4, and must be something to do with how nano handles a corrupted swapfile.

Hope this helped

edited Sep 21 '17 at 09:25

storm

4,973

answered Sep 21 '17 at 08:50

sunwalker

581

1

Use ls -a to see the hidden file as .[your_file].swp, next, try to remove it. Worked! – Phimmasone Thmvs Mar 23 '21 at 03:35

score 6 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 25 '17 at 09:47

6

The problem is linked to a bug in an older version of nano as seen here.

As per the report, the affected version was nano-2.4.2. You should run nano --version to ascertain your current version and update accordingly.

A more detailed report of the actual issue can be found here.

answered Jul 25 '17 at 09:47

The Pizza Overlord

453

My nano version is 2.5.3 – Vaibhav Phadke Jul 26 '17 at 13:13
My nano version is 2.9.3 and the problem still occurs. – Ulysses Alves Oct 27 '20 at 18:53

score 3 · Answer 3 · answered Dec 08 '17 at 20:04

3

Was happening for me because I was out of disk space, I cleared up some space, deleted the swap file and it worked.

answered Dec 08 '17 at 20:04

Anthony

131

score 2 · Answer 4 · edited Jan 13 '23 at 11:22

2

Please try this one (run this on the current folder):

find . -name "*.swp" -delete

Keep in mind that as @pbhj commented:

[...] this will find all files below the current root, ending in .swp, and delete them. Which should work to remove temporary nano files, but might have unintended consequences.

edited Jan 13 '23 at 11:22

BeastOfCaerbannog

14,585

answered Sep 06 '22 at 20:38

Arunjith R S

121

@TejasLotlikar I faced this same issue, and it got resolved by running this command. – Arunjith R S Sep 27 '22 at 15:30
1

I mean, this will find all files below the current root, ending in .swp, and delete them. Which should work to remove temporary nano files, but might have unintended consequences. Not the highest quality answer, but a working answer to the question nonetheless. – pbhj Oct 05 '22 at 23:47

score 1 · Answer 5 · answered Aug 25 '19 at 06:47

1

This happened for me because of a log file that wasn't rotating, it took the entire disk space, I solved it by truncating this log file, then removing the .swp file.

answered Aug 25 '19 at 06:47

AyuMu

11

score 0 · Answer 6 · answered May 23 '22 at 08:44

For me this was because of running docker container logs. Worked fine after deleting them. Logs location: /var/lib/docker/containers/ rm -rf /var/lib/docker/containers/*

Note: this will delete all the log generated till today, you may choose to deleted not required and also take backup to avoid logs data loss.

Getting error while opening /etc/profile: Error reading lock file /etc/.profile.swp: Not enough data read

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