Alternative Forms

• Orphan

Definitions

Definition 1 Computer Science

A file whose owner has been deleted.

Related Terms

• File

• Orphan (Dictionary Entry)

Quotes

Once you have removed a user, you may want to verify that the user’s old UID no longer owns files on the system. To find the paths of orphaned files, you can use the find command with the -nouser argument. Because find has a way of “escaping” onto network servers if you’re not careful, it’s usually best to check filesystems individually with -xdev:

$ sudo find filesystem -xdev -nouser

Bibliography

• Nemeth et al., 2011

See Also