Directory name cause scp errors

Roosta21 · 11-22-2007, 08:21 AM

I have a user that has created a directory called newDirectory?ls -al?mkdir newDirectory

I was attempting to do a backup by scp'ing the files to another server.. but this directory caused an error... but even though ls will list the directory i can not, cd into it or rename it. The server just says No such file or directory..

how can a gain access to the file or rename it, is there another method?

chrism01 · 11-22-2007, 10:17 PM

Try putting single quotes around it and renaming:

mv 'newDirectory?ls -al?mkdir newDirectory' sensiblename

You might need to escape the '?'s also

mv 'newDirectory\?ls -al\?mkdir newDirectory' sensiblename

also, beat user around head with manual...

Roosta21 · 11-23-2007, 04:13 AM

Thanks but it still does not seem to recognise the directory it just returns a No such file or directory. even with the \ before ?

The only thing i can thing of is rm -r hte whole directory an then replace the files, but i cant get into the directory to check to see if an files are in there..

Any other ideas?

colucix · 11-23-2007, 04:22 AM

Try to escape like this

Code:

cd newDirectory\\\?ls\ -al\\\?mkdir\ newDirectory/

matthewg42 · 11-23-2007, 08:27 AM

The ? character might be some strange character which cannot be displayed correctly in your terminal, and the font/terminal emulator chooses ? to indicate this... To find out what is actually in the file name use the -b option to ls, which will print non-printable characters as their octal encodings.

Tinkster · 11-23-2007, 12:58 PM

Or just use the tab-expansion method ;} Chances are bash will
be working the quoting out for you.

Cheers,
Tink

Roosta21 · 11-23-2007, 01:21 PM

The tab worked thanks very much! I cant believe i never tried it.. but thanks everyone for you help..

Ross

Tinkster · 11-23-2007, 01:30 PM

Sweet :}

Cheers,
Tink