First, Emacs froze when I tried to list my home directory, then "ls -a" froze from command line.  Through trial and error, it appears that there is a file, directory, or special file in my home directory that begins with ".gvfs".  Any attempts to list the contents of the directory that should include .gvfs* fails and locks up the program that issued the command; emacs, ls -a in bash shell, etc.  The close icon in the upper right hand corner of the frame will cause a pop-dialog to appear that allows the program to be "force quit".

Any ideas on how to resolve this problem?  Can I safely do a "rm -rf .gvfs*" or will that delete files that my system needs?

The command "ls -ad .gvfs*" also locks up which leads me to suspect that .gvfs is a special file, such as a device, instead of a directory.

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Fate of the Peacock     Steven F. LeBrun

Quote: "One day a peacock. The next day a feather duster."
    —  Democrat Patrick Quinn, Illinois lieutenant governor