UNIX for Beginners Questions & Answers

OK. So, as I assumed, there are no NUL bytes in the filename.

And, with a current Apple OS (macOS Sierra Version 10.12.2), I am able to create a file with the filename you're using and remove it with no problems when the file is in an hfs (local, journaled) filesystem:

Code:

$ ls -l
$ fn=$(printf '\342\220\200INITPicker 2.0')
$ touch "$fn"
$ ls -l *T*
-rw-r--r--  1 dwc  staff  0 Dec 21 23:18 ␀INITPicker 2.0
$ ls *T* | od -bc
0000000   342 220 200 111 116 111 124 120 151 143 153 145 162 040 062 056
           ␀  **  **   I   N   I   T   P   i   c   k   e   r       2   .
0000020   060 012                                                        
           0  \n                                                        
0000022
$ rm -i *T*
remove ␀INITPicker 2.0? y
$ ls -l
$ 

And, this works both with my default locale setting:

Code:

LANG="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_COLLATE="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_CTYPE="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_MESSAGES="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_MONETARY="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_NUMERIC="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_TIME="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_ALL=

and with LC_ALL=C

The problem should be a 10.11.X one only... Soon 10.12 will run on my Mac and I can go on and find new problems :P

Solaris for one system I've used it on. It is an old UNIX command for fixing file systems.

While we're on this path: Does OSX have debugfs? And is there a reason not to run fsck on the filesystem?

I just spent some more time researching this on the web (as you do!).

Your original post mentioned that this started when you had an external drive connected. Well it seems to me, and I'm not an OSX user, (and I'm fed up with saying that) that OSX differentiates between local and external drives. Meaning it doesn't accept weird filenames on local drives but expects them on external drives.

I found this statement/solution on a web forum, it's probably copyright content so I'll acknowledge that right now.

"I had a similar issue once and I just connected a FireWire cable between my two Macs that are near by and then started the one Mac [that had the stubborn file] in Target Disk Mode then when it mounted on the other Mac I went to the location trashed the file, emptied the trash, dismounted the Mac in Target Disk Mode unplugged and restarted it normally and *poof* the file was gone forever."

So what do all you OSX users think?

Hicksd8, Brilliant! Using a second Mac (running Mavericks) worked to delete the copy of the offending file I had on the desktop. But.... I can't see the trash in the mounted remote Mac. I can't drag the file out of the trash, as it only makes a copy and does not move it.

Any idea how to see the remote trash?

Thanks for researching and posting! Much appreciated.

I'm pleased to be of help but I only just about understand what you're saying. I'm not an OSX user. Perhaps another subscriber to this thread can help you. Anyway, sounds lime some progress.

---------- Post updated at 03:44 PM ---------- Previous update was at 03:41 PM ----------

Okay, this is probably a stupid question but, if you know OSX internals and you know where the trash is really kept, can't you just go to that folder on the remote machine?

hicksd8, Yes, progress. I really don't know anything under the hood for OS X, being allergic to UNIX :-). However, I did discover that I can drag the folder containing the offending file out of the trash to the desktop. Then I discovered that using the Firewire connection, the controlling Mac only sees a SATA volume in the Mac with the problem file, and not the PCIe SSD where the original problem occurred. Jeeeeeez, can things get any more convoluted?