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Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!cs.utexas.edu!ut-emx!dlnash
From: dlnash@ut-emx.UUCP (Donald L. Nash)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.xenix,comp.unix.questions,comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: Ugly file name
Keywords: rm cat mv regexp
Message-ID: <12970@ut-emx.UUCP>
Date: 11 May 89 20:05:52 GMT
References: <128@tdl.UUCP> <7170@bsu-cs.bsu.edu>
Distribution: usa
Organization: The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas
Lines: 30

In article <7170@bsu-cs.bsu.edu>, neubauer@bsu-cs.bsu.edu (Paul Neubauer) writes:
> As I see it (and this is NOT intended as a flame), this illustrates a
> problem with the *nix filesystem:  filenames can be created that cannot then
> be sensibly manipulated.  I LIKE the flexibility of *nix filenaming where
> you are not required to have a '.' in all filenames (like some OS's which
> shall remain nameless) and (at least with BSD) names can be reasonably long,
> but it can be a hassle when you accidently create a file with a wierd or
> ugly name and then cannot easily rename or delete it.  

This really is not a problem with the UN!X filesystem so much as it is with
the UN!X shells.  The filesystem is perfectly happy to deal with filenames
with ugly characters in them, as is illustrated by all of these unhappy
experiences.  It is the shells, which assign special meanings to certain
characters, which are the root of the problem.  I always thought that some
combination of backslashes, single quotes, and double quotes would convince
a shell to allow any character (other than control characters) in a filename,
but maybe I am mistaken.  I would like to see something like the \nnn syntax
of C put into a shell so I can match any character by its ASCII code.  Of
course it might be difficult to use the "\" character, since it is already
used for quoting, but that can be worked around.


				Don Nash

				The University of Texas System
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