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(find.info)Strange File Names

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Strange File Names
==================

   `find' can help you remove or rename a file with strange characters
in its name.  People are sometimes stymied by files whose names contain
characters such as spaces, tabs, control characters, or characters with
the high bit set.  The simplest way to remove such files is:

     rm -i SOME*PATTERN*THAT*MATCHES*THE*PROBLEM*FILE

   `rm' asks you whether to remove each file matching the given
pattern.  If you are using an old shell, this approach might not work if
the file name contains a character with the high bit set; the shell may
strip it off.  A more reliable way is:

     find . -maxdepth 1 TESTS -ok rm '{}' \;

where TESTS uniquely identify the file.  The `-maxdepth 1' option
prevents `find' from wasting time searching for the file in any
subdirectories; if there are no subdirectories, you may omit it.  A
good way to uniquely identify the problem file is to figure out its
inode number; use

     ls -i

   Suppose you have a file whose name contains control characters, and
you have found that its inode number is 12345.  This command prompts
you for whether to remove it:

     find . -maxdepth 1 -inum 12345 -ok rm -f '{}' \;

   If you don't want to be asked, perhaps because the file name may
contain a strange character sequence that will mess up your screen when
printed, then use `-exec' instead of `-ok'.

   If you want to rename the file instead, you can use `mv' instead of
`rm':

     find . -maxdepth 1 -inum 12345 -ok mv '{}' NEW-FILE-NAME \;