I seem to have problems with rm. specifically, even when using -f it won't remove files, if the permissions are restricted to read-only. -f is supposed to be the "I don't care, just do it" switch. At one point moved my whole "c:\cygwin" hierarchy to a backup, rebooted and reinstalled, to try and get a "clean" experience. no good. dz@w2 ~ $ mkdir goo dz@w2 ~ $ touch goo/foo dz@w2 ~ $ chmod 400 goo/foo dz@w2 ~ $ rm -f goo/foo dz@w2 ~ $ ls -la goo total 0 drwxr-xr-x+ 2 dz mkgroup-l-d 0 Jan 13 08:10 . drwxrwx---+ 23 Administrators SYSTEM 0 Jan 13 08:10 .. -r-------- 1 dz mkgroup-l-d 0 Jan 13 08:10 foo dz@w2 ~ $ getfacl goo # file: goo # owner: dz # group: mkgroup-l-d user::rwx group::r-x mask:rwx other:r-x default:user::rwx default:group::r-x default:other:r-x dz@w2 ~ $ getfacl goo/foo # file: goo/foo # owner: dz # group: mkgroup-l-d user::r-- group::--- mask:rwx other:--- dz@w2 ~ $ which rm /usr/bin/rm dz@w2 ~ $ ls -l /usr/bin/rm -rwxr-x---+ 1 dz mkgroup-l-d 125952 Nov 13 20:54 /usr/bin/rm dz@w2 ~ $ mount d:\cygwin\bin on /usr/bin type system (binmode) d:\cygwin\lib on /usr/lib type system (binmode) d:\cygwin on / type system (binmode) c: on /cygdrive/c type system (binmode,noumount) d: on /cygdrive/d type system (binmode,noumount) I did some searching to see if others are having these problems, but I must be using bad search terms or something. help appreciated- greenup