Funny file names

[Ed Arnold]

> By mistake I created a file called ^G (ctl-G) from readnews.  When
> went back to the csh, I did an `ls' and it told me that I had file
> called `?'.  When I tried to `rm ?' it wouldn't go away.  However,
> I tried `rm ^G', that worked.  I think this is kind of strange.
> 
> What happens if one (by mistake) creates a file called `ctl-foo' and one
> didn't know that this was happening.  The next time they did an `ls'
> of that directory they'd get a `?' and it would be impossible to remove
> because they don't know the name.
> 
> Can someone explain this to me?
> 
> -- 
> 			Pravin Kumar
> 
> Don't bother me! I'm on an emergency third rail power trip.
> 
> ARPA:   phaedrus!eneevax at maryland
> UUCP:   {seismo,allegra,brl-bmd}!umcp-cs!eneevax!phaedrus

You can see what those funny files really are by doing something like
"ls | od -c".  If a funny file contains something really awful,
like chars above 177(8), you may have to write a short C program
containing a call to unlink(), to get rid of them.
-- 
Ed Arnold
NCAR/SCD (Nat'l Ctr for Atmospheric Research/Scientific Computing Div.)
USPS: POB 3000, Boulder, CO  80307-3000
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