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Termos
Asked: 2010-11-23 01:51:15 +0800 CST

How to delete file containing special characters in Linux?

  • 772

I've created a linux bash file in a windows text editor. This file contained commands for moving files to another location under linux.

After i ran this file i discovered that destination files have "\r" symbol in their end. (I guess this is because linux and windows use different line end symbols)

So 'Dir' command shows that i have files like these: "httpd.conf\r" while 'ls' shows the same filename as: "httpd.conf?"

How do i delete these files ?

These commands do not work:

Rm httpd.conf\r
Rm httpd.conf\\r
rm 'httpd.conf\r'

I receive the following error:

rm: cannot lstat `httpd.confr': No such file or directory

linux

5 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    The simpler way would be:

    rm -i httpd.conf?
    • 5

  2. If you get a really chewy filename, you can delete it by inode: run ls -il to get the inode number, then use: find -inum <inode number> -exec rm -i {} \; to delete it.

    (Credit to one of my old bookmarks for this one: http://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/delete-remove-files-with-inode-number.html)

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  3. If you are using bash and bash's tab completion is enabled you can use it to complete the filename with the character in question automatically escaped.

    • 2

  4. You can do:

    rm $'httpd.conf\r'

    or

    rm 'httpd.conf^M'

    You obtain ^M by pressing Ctrl-v then Ctrl-m.

    • 2

  5. Suppose you have two files in the same directory:httpd.conf and httpd.conf\r.

    Copy the file(s) you want to keep:

    $ sudo cp httpd.conf httpd-keep.conf

    Simply remove ALL files that start with httpd.conf:

    $ sudo rm httpd.conf*

    Restore the original file:

    $ sudo mv httpd-keep.conf httpd.conf

    You need to BACKUP ALL OTHER FILES that start with "httpd.conf" if any before executing the rm command as shown above.

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