How to remove a file with special characters in its name (space, semicolon, backslash)

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How to remove a file with special characters in its name (space, semicolon, backslash)

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Question:

I have a file with a semicolon in its name and cannot delete it. How can I delete a file with strange characters in its name (space, semicolon, backslash)?

Answer:

In Unix you can string commands together with semicolons, so Unix will interpret a semicolon in a filename as a separator. You can try the following:

putting the filename in quotes
put a \ in front of each of the special characters
if the filename starts with a special character e.g. '-', put a ./ in front of it

Finally you can try using an FTP client, ftp into that directory and issue an MDELETE command (short: mde). It will offer to delete all files - say 'no' in all cases except for the chosen one. That way you do not have to specify the file name.


	# for files with ; rm "file;name" # to remove '-filename' rm "./-filename";

Comments:

2006-12-26, 07:37:48

anonymous from United States

You also can use unix wild characters in this case:
rm -i file*

will remove any file that its name starts with 'file' while it does not delete without asking.

2008-07-02, 09:02:14

anonymous from United States

Worked perfectly. Thank you !!

2008-09-17, 02:04:10

anonymous from India

Thanks. your suggestion with the './' worked perfectly..

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