# mkdir /tmp/foo # touch /tmp/foo/.immutable # chattr +i /tmp/foo/.immutable # rm -rf /tmp/foo It's not EXACTLY what you asked for, but the .immutable file

# mkdir /tmp/foo # touch /tmp/foo/.immutable # chattr +i /tmp/foo/.immutable # rm -rf /tmp/foo It's not EXACTLY what you asked for, but the .immutable file cannot be deleted until you call chattr -i on it, which protects the directory....