From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Mar 15 17:41:50 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 979EC16A4CE for ; Mon, 15 Mar 2004 17:41:50 -0800 (PST) Received: from rwcrmhc13.comcast.net (rwcrmhc13.comcast.net [204.127.198.39]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 3E40643D1F for ; Mon, 15 Mar 2004 17:41:50 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from freebsd-questions-local@be-well.ilk.org) Received: from be-well.no-ip.com ([66.30.196.44]) by comcast.net (rwcrmhc13) with ESMTP id <20040316012613015002nv52e>; Tue, 16 Mar 2004 01:26:13 +0000 Received: by be-well.no-ip.com (Postfix, from userid 1147) id C303DE; Mon, 15 Mar 2004 20:26:12 -0500 (EST) Sender: lowell@be-well.ilk.org To: Walter References: <40564E2C.7060706@earthlink.net> From: Lowell Gilbert Date: 15 Mar 2004 20:26:12 -0500 In-Reply-To: <40564E2C.7060706@earthlink.net> Message-ID: <44smg9oa4r.fsf@be-well.ilk.org> Lines: 18 User-Agent: Gnus/5.09 (Gnus v5.9.0) Emacs/21.3 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii cc: Questions Subject: Re: [Fwd: Re: deleting directories with ??? in name] X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list Reply-To: Questions List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 16 Mar 2004 01:41:50 -0000 Walter writes: > I managed to delete the files by recreating the directory. > > Not to seem ungrateful, but isn't it a Bad Thing that it > is not straightforeward to delete any file on the system > (as root, and thwarted merely because of the characters in > the name of the file/directory)? I'm not in a position to > mangle lynx, but oughtn't it to be able to zap ANY file > regardless of its name? (emacs is obtuse to me.) Is this > worthy of a PR? Or are there other ways to kill a > malconforming file? Why should an annonomous FTP user > be able to create a directory tree that the root account > of the machine can't traverse and delete normally? (Sigh.) It sounds like you're just unfamiliar with shell quoting rules. Maybe you'd find it easier with a different shell? [root uses csh by default, which I find much more arcane than sh]