I've been trying to rename some files that are messed up, and many of them actually need to have non-normal and non-printing characters in the filename. say i'm trying to rename a file from bmunch.r01 to bmunch{ascii character for delete by number or whatever}.r01.
In msdos what i'm trying to do could be done by holding down the alt key while typing the ascii number of the character, then releasing. I've tried loads of stuff like \O127 or whatever and printf and and echo and different combinations of single and double quotes, but with no luck. I can get printf and echo to print a character by octal, but i can't get that into the middle of a mv or rename command as a character of the file's name.

Try putting a backslash in front of the character - this instructs the shell to interpret the character AS a character rather than a regular expression

I need to insert ascii characters that aren't on the keyboard such as octal 177, which is asci 127, and i've been trying the simple things such as \O177, and i can get the characters to print to screen singularly, but not as part of a mv or rename command. in dos or windows you could say "move filename.txt, then hold down alt then 255 on the keypad, let up alt and this is a blank space, and hit enter, and you've renamed the file to a blank space character.