removing files

**Anonymous** · 12-09-2002

How would I remove a file that has a name with non-letter characters in it?
Example: hello!.txt
When I try to use the "rm" command I get shell errors because of the exclamation point.

**Dolda2000** · 12-09-2002

Escape the exclamation mark either by typing hello\!.txt (that's a backslash) or 'hello!.txt' (single quotes, double won't work).

**Sykotik** · 12-09-2002

Originally Posted by Dolda2000

(single quotes, double won't work).

What? I've always used double quotes without problems.

Figures...

**Dolda2000** · 12-09-2002

It usually works, but ! is a very special character. I don't know exactly what it does, though, but it seems to be more internal than ordinary substitutions.

**flaminghyundai** · 12-11-2002

Say you created a file with the name
"dont worry, just looking around!?dont" decided that this wasn't such a good idea, and would like to remove it.

When I use the "rm" command, the shell tells me that it cannot find this file. I thought that this was because of the exclamation point, but even when I escape the exclamation point with a \ I still have problems. I also tried specifying the path like this: rm /home/users/user/"filename\!"

**Dolda2000** · 12-11-2002

Works perfectly for me. Just enclose the file name in single quotes, or tab complete it.

**majorwoo** · 12-11-2002

about time someone said tab-complete

**Sykotik** · 12-14-2002

Originally Posted by majorwoo

about time someone said tab-complete

Let us all bow down before the altar of Tabcompletius and praise the Gods of Shell.

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removing files

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