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Date:      Wed, 05 Feb 2003 18:46:22 -0500
From:      Walter <walterk1@earthlink.net>
To:        Questions <freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.org>
Subject:   Re: handling non-printable characters in file names
Message-ID:  <3E41A24E.9090607@earthlink.net>

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Nathan Kinkade wrote:
 > On Wed, Feb 05, 2003 at 01:28:57PM -0500, Walter wrote:
 >>   Leaving out the details, I need to know how to
 >>navigate directories and remove files that use non-
 >>printable characters in their names. du and ls show
 >>me they're there, but I can't figure out how to make
 >>cd work, or rm either.  Fwiw, the non-printable char
 >>is \225.  Lynx was not able to see the directory
 >>either, but maybe because it began with a ". " -
 >>I don't know.
 >
 > Generally, there are several things to try with difficult file names:
 >
 > 1) Try quoting the spuriously named files (try double and single)
 > 2) Add a ./ in front of the filename
 > 3) Try letting the shell expand the filename for you by typing the first
 > few characters and then pressing the Tab key.
 > 4) Trying escaping any unruly characters with a ``\"

Thanks, Nathan.

I had tried 1 and 4 but they didn't work (at least
the way I did them).  I don't have a shell that
expands file names, but I'll try 2 if it happens
again. (I've zapped it all by starting at the
parent directory.)

There's probably someone who can explain why non-
printable characters are useful in file names, but
I'd really rather disallow them altogether - if
there's a build option or control flag to set.
Anyone?

Walter



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