[Chapter 23] 23.11 Deleting Files with Odd Names
Author: Jerry Peek, Tim O'Reilly & Mike Loukides
Date: 1998-08-04T21:41:08Z

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| Chapter 23 Removing Files |

## 23.11 Deleting Files with Odd Names

A perennial problem is deleting files that have strange characters (or other oddities) in their names. The next few articles contain some hints for:

- Deleting files with random control characters in their names (article 23.12).

- Deleting files with a "null" name (article 23.13).

- Deleting files whose names that start with a dash (article 23.14).

- Deleting files with "unprintable" filenames (article 23.15).

- Deleting files by using the inode number (article 23.16).

- Deleting directories, and problems that can arise (article 23.17).

We'll also give hints for:

- Deleting unused (or rarely used) files (articles 23.19 and 23.20).

- Deleting all the files in a directory, except for one or two (article 23.21).

- ML

23.10 Deletion with Prejudice: rm -f |  | 23.12 Using Wildcards to Delete Files with Strange Names