OS X (Apple)

The filename seems to be illegal, not accepted by the MacOS kernel.
And seems to be impossible to delete.
Even in C it is

Code:

int unlink(const char *pathname);

so the illegal file name comes into effect.

What kind of file system is it?

Code:

df -k .

tells the device path of the current folder.
Is it an external drive?
Was the file created by another computer, with a different OS?

I'm back. Thanks for your patience, I hope you all haven't lost interest.

Responses to suggestions and requests:

Code:

12FX009:5 dpontius$ ls -li
total 48
963069 -rwxr-xr-x@ 1 dpontius  staff  0 Feb 27  1992 ␀␀Word Finder® Plus™

This is a 2013 MacPro running OSX 10.11.6 with Journaled HFS Plus

Code:

12FX009:5 dpontius$ find . -delete
find: -delete: unlink(./␀␀Word Finder® Plus™): Invalid argument

12FX009:5 dpontius$ namestart=$'\x80\x80'
12FX009:5 dpontius$ rm -rf "${namestart}"*
12FX009:5 dpontius$ ls
␀␀Word Finder® Plus™

This file was on ancient backups that I copied years ago onto my now-spacious hard drive. I suspect that it (and a second file from 1998 I haven't mentioned yet called �SurfSim 1.0.0␀ Prefs��) were part of some copy protection scheme. I've used neither program for decades. So yes, the file was created on a very different operating system, whatever the Macintosh was running two decades ago.

cheers,
dp

I think you need a "disk editor" tool that allows to edit the directory entries.
Cannot recommend any - I am not a Mac user.

debugfs with its unlink and rm commands comes to mind, but it might suffer from the same problems as the other tools. When using it, be very careful and know exactly what you are doing!

Have you tried:

Code:

find <parent-directory> -delete

Tried the last suggestion by hicksd8, find and delete, no luck.

Also, I moved the thread to the OS-X forum as that seems more appropriate. I'd intended it to be there from the start.

cheers,
dp

If find doesn't work, no other user-mode application is going to work. The filename is invalid and the kernel refuses to touch it. You need a disk editor.