Author Topic: [Solved] Illegal Characters in Directory Name  (Read 1716 times)

Offline dobbs

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[Solved] Illegal Characters in Directory Name
« on: February 06, 2010, 03:19:30 PM »
I'm having a heck of a time with this one. I downloaded a zipfile on the web. I unzipped the file and the directory that was created contained an accent in one of the names. I think the word is February, but it is spelled F?vrier. I believe the ? is an accented e. I can't open,rename, or delete the directory. The message I get is no such directory with that name. I've tried it in Krusader ,Dolphin,Konqueror and the command line with rm and mv. I've tried as user and root. It seems that I've dealt with this before, but I can't remember my remedy. I'm using KDE4.... :-(

« Last Edit: February 06, 2010, 05:25:25 PM by dobbs »
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Offline jaydot

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Re: Illegal Characters in Filename and/or Directory Name
« Reply #1 on: February 06, 2010, 03:29:10 PM »
you should be able to right click and rename to something innocuous in your file manager of choice.
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Offline dobbs

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Re: Illegal Characters in Filename and/or Directory Name
« Reply #2 on: February 06, 2010, 03:38:41 PM »
Thanks, but this is what I get when I try to rename it...



folder does not exist
« Last Edit: February 06, 2010, 04:06:40 PM by dobbs »
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Offline Texstar

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Re: Illegal Characters in Filename and/or Directory Name
« Reply #3 on: February 06, 2010, 03:53:13 PM »
Can you remove it in the console with rm -rf "name of stupid file" using the quote option?


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Offline dobbs

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Re: Illegal Characters in Filename and/or Directory Name
« Reply #4 on: February 06, 2010, 04:02:30 PM »
It's a directory so rm doesn't work. I tried rmdir, but it also didn't work.
With rmdir, I get "invalid option -r" and/or "invalid option -f" as error messages.
When using rmdir without any options I get "no such file or directory"... :-(
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Offline Old-Polack

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Re: Illegal Characters in Filename and/or Directory Name
« Reply #5 on: February 06, 2010, 04:16:33 PM »
It's a directory so rm doesn't work. I tried rmdir, but it also didn't work.
With rmdir, I get "invalid option -r" and/or "invalid option -f" as error messages.
When using rmdir without any options I get "no such file or directory"... :-(

The command rm -rf "<directory name>" works for me, removing the directory, sub directories and any included files. Also, rm -rf *<part of directory name>* works the same way.

Try;

rm -rf *vrier*
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Offline Animal

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Re: Illegal Characters in Directory Name
« Reply #6 on: February 06, 2010, 04:46:37 PM »
if it wont delete the folder because you cant type the filename because of the non standard character, try temporarily moving the non effected files and folders out of that directory into another folder, then just just do a rm -rf "*" wildcard.. that way it will delete any file or folders that are effected by the non standard character. just an idea..
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Offline Bald Brick

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Re: Illegal Characters in Directory Name
« Reply #7 on: February 06, 2010, 04:58:01 PM »
Try simply using the wildcard ? instead of the troublesome character:
Code: [Select]
mv f?vrier fevrier
You might even try
Code: [Select]
mv f?vrier février
(é is not an illegal character; the reason it gives you trouble is probably that your system has been set up to use UTF-8 while the name of the directory was created with another encoding.)
« Last Edit: February 06, 2010, 04:59:35 PM by blackbird »
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Offline dobbs

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Re: Illegal Characters in Directory Name
« Reply #8 on: February 06, 2010, 05:24:43 PM »
@old-polack
Thanks for your reply rm -rf *vrier* worked perfectly. I'm not sure why others didn't work. But thanks to everyone for your replies. This is the friendliest and most responsive forum I've been a member of..... :D

mv *vrier fevrier also worked.. Thanks to all...:D
« Last Edit: February 08, 2010, 08:52:29 PM by dobbs »
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Offline Old-Polack

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Re: Illegal Characters in Directory Name
« Reply #9 on: February 06, 2010, 05:37:02 PM »
@old-polack
Thanks for your reply rm -rf *vrier* worked perfectly. I'm not sure why others didn't work. But thanks to everyone for your replies. This is the friendliest and most responsive forum I've been a member of..... :D

I've run into the same sort of problem myself, and it's very annoying until you figure it out. Glad it worked for you too. ;D ;)
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Offline YouCanToo

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Re: [Solved] Illegal Characters in Directory Name
« Reply #10 on: February 06, 2010, 07:52:32 PM »
I'm having a heck of a time with this one. I downloaded a zipfile on the web. I unzipped the file and the directory that was created contained an accent in one of the names. I think the word is February, but it is spelled F?vrier. I believe the ? is an accented e. I can't open,rename, or delete the directory. The message I get is no such directory with that name. I've tried it in Krusader ,Dolphin,Konqueror and the command line with rm and mv. I've tried as user and root. It seems that I've dealt with this before, but I can't remember my remedy. I'm using KDE4.... :-(




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Offline Old-Polack

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Re: [Solved] Illegal Characters in Directory Name
« Reply #11 on: February 06, 2010, 08:03:32 PM »
YouCanToo:

If you click the Important Info link above the image, you'll also see this.

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Offline rogaven

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Re: [Solved] Illegal Characters in Directory Name
« Reply #12 on: February 06, 2010, 08:37:54 PM »
hola amigos,

I have a similar problem with files.

Quote
Fred und Rolf - �ber uns die Wolken.mp3
Peter Fr�hlich - Ich bin immer f�r dich da.mp3
...

konqueror and krusada - "The file or ... not exist." I can't rename or move.
pcman - no problems, I can rename and move
mc from konsole no problems

I'm sure that the problems exist only since KDE4
and now  ???


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Offline Animal

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Re: [Solved] Illegal Characters in Directory Name
« Reply #13 on: February 06, 2010, 08:45:23 PM »
Quote
I'm sure that the problems exist only since KDE4

KDE 4 has nothing to do with this, this is a character set issue. Not a DE issue.
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Offline rogaven

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Re: [Solved] Illegal Characters in Directory Name
« Reply #14 on: February 06, 2010, 09:21:49 PM »
Quote
I'm sure that the problems exist only since KDE4

KDE 4 has nothing to do with this, this is a character set issue. Not a DE issue.

I previously thought too
BUT
Why the error occurs after upgrading to KDE 4?
Why the error occurs only with KDE applications? (konqueror and krusader)
Why work pcman?
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