Delete files beginning with * Post: 302794669

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Top Forums UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers Delete files beginning with * Post 302794669 by alister on Tuesday 16th of April 2013 12:14:18 PM

04-16-2013

Registered User

Quote:

Originally Posted by jamie_123

I probably missed seeing the question, these files were created by tcpdump, with basic filename being * and a value that increments and creates a new file each time the file reaches beyond a value. These were created on a unix system and then moved to another harddisk without any trouble.

Tried that, get a response saying the filename is not valid or too long.

Upon further reflection, since you mentioned that even the windows file manager cannot remove the files, I don't think this is a cygwin issue. I now believe that the unix system used to create these files allowed you to use characters which windows forbids but which ntfs can handle.

Windows does not allow the asterisk at all. When creating a file which contains an asterisk, Cygwin translates it and in its stead writes a utf8 character that looks like a solid dot (which is a valid character as far as windows is concerned). When reading the filename, Cygwin then translates it back to an asterisk for cygwin apps. The windows file manager does not do this and will show you the solid dot.

From what you said about creating the files on unix, I suspect that it wrote a literal asterisk into the filename. The NTFS implementation supports the asterisk, but windows will not accept it when it reads it. And, since ultimately cygwin depends on windows, it fails as well.

If this is correct, the most expedient solution may be to mount that filesystem with the unix system that created it and rename those files.

Regards,
Alister

Last edited by alister; 04-16-2013 at 01:23 PM..

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vidir

VIDIR(1)																  VIDIR(1)

NAME

       vidir - edit directory

SYNOPSIS

       vidir [--verbose] [directory|file|-] ...

DESCRIPTION

       vidir allows editing of the contents of a directory in a text editor. If no directory is specified, the current directory is edited.

       When editing a directory, each item in the directory will appear on its own numbered line. These numbers are how vidir keeps track of what
       items are changed. Delete lines to remove files from the directory, or edit filenames to rename files. You can also switch pairs of numbers
       to swap filenames.

       Note that if "-" is specified as the directory to edit, it reads a list of filenames from stdin and displays those for editing.
       Alternatively, a list of files can be specified on the command line.

OPTIONS

       -v, --verbose
	   Verbosely display the actions taken by the program.

EXAMPLES

       vidir
       vidir *.jpeg
	   Typical uses.

       find | vidir -
	   Edit subdirectory contents too. To delete subdirectories, delete all their contents and the subdirectory itself in the editor.

       find -type f | vidir -
	   Edit all files under the current directory and subdirectories.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

       EDITOR
	   Editor to use.

       VISUAL
	   Also supported to determine what editor to use.

AUTHOR

       Copyright 2006 by Joey Hess <joey@kitenet.net>

       Licensed under the GNU GPL.

moreutils							    2010-04-28								  VIDIR(1)

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