Mount a directory in read only filesystem to read write

Question

I want to delete a particluar directory in a read only file system. How to mount its parent directory it in read write mode so that I can delete tha. I tried different things after googling. But could not succeed. For some options it say, block device required.

Answer 1

I suppose you would like to remount the /usr file system read-write:

$ sudo mount -o remount,rw /usr

Just change /usr above by the mount point you would like to remount.

Answer 2

The key is that you need to do this on a mount point basis. There is no easy way to do this for just a portion of a mounted filesystem. To get a list of the currently mounted filesystems, try

df

For one problem that the ability to do this would lead to, consider hard links. If a file is linked in one directory that is read-only and another that is read-write, what should the permissions on that file be?