LinuxQuestions.org - is an apostrophe a protected character in linux filesystems?

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is an apostrophe a protected character in linux filesystems?

i found http://academic.wsc.edu/faculty/jebauer1/linux.html which explains reserved characters can't be used in names (such as * and ?) but i did not find an explicit list of reserved characters. I searched google for that, as opposed to invalid characters, and got roughly the same hits, that didnt seem to give more info.

The reson for this, is im trying to run wine from a terminal, because i cant get civilization 4 to run and am looking for any error codes. But when i try to path to it, this is where i get to

Code:



david@david-laptop:~$ cd .wine/drive_c

david@david-laptop:~/.wine/drive_c$ dir



Cavedog  Install_Messenger.exe        Program\ Files        Seven\ Kingdoms  windows



david@david-laptop:~/.wine/drive_c$ cd Program\ Files

david@david-laptop:~/.wine/drive_c/Program Files$ dir



AutoHotkey    Firaxis\ Games                                MSN\ Messenger

Common\ Files  InstallShield\ Installation\ Information  Ubisoft

directx        Internet\ Explorer



david@david-laptop:~/.wine/drive_c/Program Files$ cd Firaxis\ Games

david@david-laptop:~/.wine/drive_c/Program Files/Firaxis Games$ dir



Sid\ Meier's\ Civilization\ 4



david@david-laptop:~/.wine/drive_c/Program Files/Firaxis Games$ cd Si Meier's\ Civilization\ 4

> dir

> dir

> 

david@david-laptop:~/.wine/drive_c/Program Files/Firaxis Games$ cd Sid\ Meier's\ Civilization\ 4

>

One thing i notice, and this may be strange just because if my window's mind, but when i'm IN a directory, the subs are seperated by /'s, however, whenever i CD into a directory, i use \'s in the sub name...

Indeed, ' has a meaning to bash.
It means 'start or terminate a string and don't care about variables'
you can also use " to start and terminate a string
try: cd "Sid Meier's Civilization 4"

The apostrophe is a special character in the shell, not the filesystem; since you have a directory whose name contains an apostrophe, it can't be illegal for the filesystem to contain one.

In order to change into the directory with the apostrophe in, you either need to escape it (just like the spaces in the name are escaped, with a \), or enclose the name in inverted commas:

Code:

cd Sid\ Meier\'s\ Civilization\ 4

Code:

cd "Sid Meier's Civilization 4"

The / is the only character not allowed in filenames on unix filesystems because it's what separates one directory from a subdirectory; all other characters are valid.

Quote:

Originally Posted by akuthia

Only if there's a space (or other special character) in the name. Subdirectories are always separated by /.

thanks a bunch, that got me in... now if only i can get it to run.. lol...

unfortunately not, the error codes im getting at this point are about the security (it seems thats being skipped) and all reports i've seen are saying wine is now handling the copy protection scheme for civ 4, something about unimplemented actions for setting sticky mouse keys, and sticky keys. and an error trying to animate the cursor.