I've read all the threads about how to remove files with special names, but they just don't work for me.

ls output:
# ls
/bin/ls: ERIEBLKB.TF: No such file or directory

# rm ERIEBLKB.T^TF
rm: cannot remove `ERIEBLKB.T\024F': No such file or directory

# rm ERIEBLKB.T^TF
rm: cannot remove `ERIEBLKB.T^TF': No such file or directory

# rm -rf ERIEBLKB*
executes without any error message but the file isn't removed

OS: Suse 9.2
Any help would be appreciated

Gabos Denes

There isn't anything special about the underscore character.

Check the permissions on the file, including the facl's and the extended attributes.

Underscore caracter? that's not an underscore caracter. And i can't list any attributes.

# ls -al
/bin/ls: ERIEBLKB.TF: No such file or directory
total 38
drwxrwx--- 2 nobody nogroup 80 Dec 14 13:08 .
drwxrwx--- 29 nobody nogroup 39040 Apr 30 2005 ..

Between the T and F is an underscore character.

Where is this file, because the owner group are for nobody:nogroup.

Also, cutting and posting in between code blocks will present more accurate info.

Try auto-completion. In console, you can also highlight the name, copy it and then past it as an argument to the rm command.

Use "getfacl" to list the posix acls. Use lsattr to list special attributes such as "immutable".
If the immutable bit is set, even root can't delete a file. The "chattr" command needs to be used to clear the immutable bit first.

The permissions are set to nobody:nogroup because it's on a samba share.
Using autocomplete it completes the filename to : ERIEBLKB.T^TF
I tried pasting this to the rm command and i get:
# rm ERIEBLKB.T^TF
rm: cannot remove `ERIEBLKB.T^TF': No such file or directory

getfacl returns:
# getfacl ERIEBLKB.T^TF
getfacl: ERIEBLKB.T\024F: No such file or directory

Issuing a ls in that directory lists:
# ls -al
/bin/ls: ERIEBLKB.TF: No such file or directory
total 38
drwxrwx--- 2 nobody nogroup 80 Dec 14 13:08 .
drwxrwx--- 29 nobody nogroup 39040 Apr 30 2005 ..


And this time is't a different caracter than using autocomplete. In the terminal i see no caracter, but pasted here in opera 9.24 appears as a square.

I tried using wildcard
# rm -rf ERIEBLKB*
executes without any error message but the file isn't removed

List the files in the directory with the -i option to list the inodes. "ls -li"
Then use find to locate a file in the directory with that inode number; and rm the file found in the find command.
Use the inode of your file instead of 12345 in this example from the "find" info manual:

I can't list the file:

# ls -li
/bin/ls: ERIEBLKB.TF: No such file or directory
total 38
303611 drwxrwx--- 2 nobody nogroup 80 Dec 14 13:08 .
303357 drwxrwx--- 29 nobody nogroup 39040 Apr 30 2005 ..