Files being moved to a folder named with ` (backtick): What’s happening?

TrueNAS General
1

Hi everyone,

I recently noticed a strange issue with one of my datasets on TrueNAS.

Some files keep getting moved or copied (a mix of both) into a folder at the top of the dataset. The folder’s name starts with the character ` (a backtick). I didn’t create this folder, and I’m not sure what caused it. I don’t have any scripts that would be moving files.

Any ideas what might cause files to move into a folder like this?

I’ve checked the logs and couldn’t find anything obvious, though I’m not experienced with reading logs.

Any insights or suggestions for troubleshooting would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

System Information:
TrueNAS-SCALE-23.10.2

2

Is the dataset being exported over SMB or NFS? Smells like a broken script.

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3

If the folder always has the same name you could probably bpftrace to catch the offending process.

As far as tracepoints go, if it’s not exported via NFS you can probably just trace the mkdir / mkdirat syscalls, otherwise you’d be stuck with a kprobe for vfs_mkdir.

4

Exported as SMB.

As for tracing the process, I will have to do some research on what all that is as I’m on a exteme basic-end of users when it comes to TrueNAS.

Considering it’s not exported as NFS, should I start with looking into mkdirat syscalls or the bpftrace? (or both?)

Thanks!

5

Does the folder always have the same name?

6

Sorry for the delay,

Yes it does, I should also mention that the backtick often gets self-nested… Here’s what it looks like like right now after I cleaned it up a few days ago

`
`\`
`\`\`
`\`\`\a folder

It seems to consistently copy the same folders too, but there’s no rhyme or reason to why it choses those folders

7

Just found the culprit!

I had one of my shared mounted to another server running SyncThing but the mount point was incorrect (was changed) so SyncThing was the cause of files appearing in `

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