SOLVED .gvfs: Cannot stat: Permission denied

[Wonder Warthog]

I'm unable to back-up using tar because I'm getting the error message "/home/<username>/.gvfs: Cannot stat: Permission denied" followed by termination of the process. The ls -al command indicates the existence of file  /home/<username>/.gvfs but all the file properties including permissions, names, size and date are indicated by "?" and I cannot remove it. The file (actually an empty directory) appears to be created or modified at start-up and cannot be removed by the normal delete commands.

I have had this problem (or something like it) in the past, but I can't remember how it was fixed (if it WAS fixed).

My set-up is an old Compaq Presario desk-top with an AMD Sempron 3000 processor and 1 GB RAM running PCLinuxOS/LXDE 2012/1 (I think).

Apologies if this is an old problem and the answer is available in existing posts (I have searched fairly carefully), and/or I have placed this post in the wrong category. Any help will be gratefully received.

[muungwana]

The folder is not a real folder.It is a gnome technology virtual that exists to abstract various protocols to give them a consistent file system look to gnome based programs.

If you can,add rules to the program you are using to skip the folder.Thats the only thing you can do.

[Wonder Warthog]

Thanks. All I need to do is add --exclude='.gvfs' to the tar command and it works perfectly. Sorry to have troubled y'all and many thanks. PROBLEM SOLVED.

[daniel]

Make the topic as solved, please...