Weird File - UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

rahulrathod · #1 01-19-2006

$ls -lrt
-rw-r--r-- 1 rathodr users 1757 Jan 6 13:36 cleanup.archive.files.pl
-rwxr-xr-x 1 rathodr users 20503 Jan 6 13:52 alarm.control.pl
-rw-r--r-- 1 rathodr users 20503 Jan 9 04:52q

The last file seems to be a weird file. I am not sure how was it created. Maybe while quiting vi.

$rm q
q: No such file or directory
$ file *
alarm.control.pl: executable /u01/perl/bin/perl script
cleanup.archive.files.pl: executable /u01/perl/bin/perl script
q: executable /u01/perl/bin/perl script

This displays the type of file. But I am not able to do any operation on the file nor delete it. Has anybody faced such a situation?

Thanks,
Rahul.

mahendramahendr · #2 01-19-2006

there can be some special characters in the file name which won't be visible sometimes...

try to remove using

rm -i *q*

rahulrathod · #3 01-20-2006

Thanks.

But I am curious to know what kind of special character this file consists, and why it doesn't get deleted the normal way?

Rahul.

blowtorch · #4 01-20-2006

Had to try some stuff here; but got it. Try this:

Code:

touch \<backspace_key>q

You will get that file again.

To see what special characters a filename has, use

Code:

ls -l | cat -v

zazzybob · #5 01-20-2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by blowtorch

To see what special characters a filename has, use

Code:

ls -l | cat -v

ls -lb should do the same...

Cheers
ZB

aigles · #6 01-20-2006

To delete a file with special characters in its name, you can do :

Code:

$ ls -lib
total 0
137362 -rw-rw-r--   1 gssjgu   gsb4001        0 20 jan 15:21 filename whith backspace \010
137370 -rw-rw-r--   1 gssjgu   gsb4001        0 20 jan 15:19 filename with spaces
$ find . -inum 137362 -exec rm {} \;
$ ls -lib
total 0
137370 -rw-rw-r--   1 gssjgu   gsb4001        0 20 jan 15:19 filename with spaces
$

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