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File with a weird name 'q'

 
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# 1  
Old 08-05-2008
Question File with a weird name 'q'
All,

I have the following listing of files

Code:
$ ls -lrt
-rw-rw-rw-   1 user1  group1       335691  Aug  4 17:45 script1.sh
-rw-rw-rw-   1 user1  group1         648     Aug  4 17:45 try,csv
-rw-rw-rw-   1 user1  group1      1381275  Aug  4 17:45 test.txt
-rw-rw-rw-   1 user1  group1      1381275  Aug  5 07:42q

Please let me know what the last file is and how do I delete it?

Thanks,
Rahul.
# 2  
Old 08-05-2008
Probably caused by a typo.
Try quoting critical characters
Code:
$  rm 07\:42q

# 3  
Old 08-05-2008
If the file name contains control characters, it's pretty hard to troubleshoot directly, but see if you can come up with a wildcard which matches only that file. For example, if any of the following commands lists only that file and no others, change the echo to rm and repeat the command.

Code:
echo ?  # lists all files with exactly one character in the name
echo ??   # two characters
echo ???  # three characters (etc
echo *[! -~]*  # any control characters in the name?

# 4  
Old 08-05-2008
Oh sorry, haven't looked close enough.
It looks, gathered from the size, to be a copy of test.txt.
You can run a diff or md5sum on both files to see if it really is an exact copy.
# 5  
Old 08-05-2008
Yes it is a copy of test.txt.

It was created when I was trying to quit vi when I had the test.txt opened.

The point is what is the name of the file now? How do I perform any operation on this file when I cannot pass its name to a command? I cannot perform a diff if the filename is not known.

Rahul.
# 6  
Old 08-05-2008
I quit bash and opened ksh shell. I provided the following command.
Note: Just before I typed q, I typed backspace on my keyboard which gave these characters '^?'

$ ls -lrt ^?q
-rw-rw-rw- 1 cdtnmdb asg 1381275 Aug 5 07:42q

This has listed the file. Weird character before the file name.

Regards,
Rahul.
# 7  
Old 08-05-2008
To show the funny characters:
ls -lab *q

In this case because there are no other filenames ending in "q", all you need to know is how many funny characters.

Then rename the file:
e.g. If there is just one character:

mv ?q junk
rm -i junk
 
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