Re: [newbie] Spaces in names
Meph Istopheles wrote: John, Whoa! Talk about obsessive;-). But dude, isn't life just a little dull explicitly playing by the rules? I honestly don't know how many, but I've had (in RH 6.0 likely ~will~ have in mdk 7.2 after installing this weekend) numerous files with spaces, exceeding 14 characters, even some illegal characters. I think the deal is to go with what works. There's always time to fix stuff when things go bad. How else do we learn? Meph I shall therefore consider that my non-esistant left wrist has been severely chastised by means of an obscelecent bus ticket... Actually is not about rules - it's about being able to navigate through one's system without the need for 'special' techniques. It's about readability and such. While I have a disability which limits my use of consoles, and prefer these days to use point'n'click GUI's, it all depends on whether the particular chunck of code you using has been organised to recognise that white-space is not a commandline delimiter, and it's my belief that few programmers would allow for this senario considering the extra coding needed. Meph, just consider this for a moment. You are called out to deal to a system which you have never seen before. The docs for the system have been locked away in a secure area (lost??). Some real bright script-kiddie has this neat security system - he renames certain important structures in the clients data area by means of inserting spaces into file and directory names. I've been there a couple of times, mostly in Win9x systems where the client software is run to a series of structures by means of called batchfiles. Referring to filename lengths: Linux is a *NIX clone - yes? In many cases software written to Unix specs runs under Linux - yes? In many cases software written for Linux runs under Unix - yes? Portability would tend to dictate that there be some conformity. Jeezz - what a can of worms out of: I would have thought that a space was an undesirable if not illegal character in a filename let alone a directory name. Is this not the case? Which in fact was a question rather than a statement. Cheers from a severely chastised old fogey who actually really enjoys messing about with opsys's/opsyses/opsysii (Oh Hell what is the plural)!! -- ICQ#: 89345394 Mailto: [EMAIL PROTECTED] "The number of UNIX installations has grown to 10, with more expected" (The UNIX Programmer's Manual, 2nd Edition, June 1972.)
Re: [newbie] Spaces in names
Mark's mail wrote: Wait...I thought spaces "were/are" illegal in *nix? Mark On Tue, 12 Dec 2000 20:25:28 +0100 (CET), Paul said: Are you kidding? Try mkdir "directory with spaces" ls rm -r "directory with spaces" but directory.with.spaces is easier, right? ;-} I would have thought that a space was an undesirable if not illegal character in a filename let alone a directory name. Is this not the case? If it were illegal, I think that someone would have made a program alteration that would prevent you from putting a space in a directory name. I agree though, that it is undesirable. Paul -- To do is to be - Sartre To be is to do - Spinoza Do be do be do - Sinatra http://nlpagan.net - ICQ 147208 - Registered Linux User 174403 Linux Mandrake 7.2 - Pine 4.30
Re: [newbie] Spaces in names
Well...when I attempt to navigate to a dir in a terminal window that has spaces in the name I'm told that "no such file or directory" exists and if I try to do a chmod, or chown or any type of attribute change on a file or dir with a space in the name, then this too fails. I don't think spaces "are" legal forms of naming. Otherwise wouldn't the OS allow this? I've never known any type *nix to allow this before. -- Mark ### ## ...it's not a bug, it's a feature ## Registered Linux User # 182496 ## !-- Pine 4.31 -- # On Wed, 13 Dec 2000 Sridhar Dhanapalan spake passionately saying! Spaces are not illegal at all - you can use them as you wish. I personally like to use spaces in file and directory names in order to keep my stuff organised. Most programmes support this, but there are a few that I've encountered that don't. I don't think it's a good idea to use spaces outside your home directories, unless you're sure this won't create any problems. On Wed, 13 Dec 2000 12:08, Mark's mail wrote: Wait...I thought spaces "were/are" illegal in *nix? Mark On Tue, 12 Dec 2000 20:25:28 +0100 (CET), Paul said: On Wed, 13 Dec 2000, John Rye wrote: I would have thought that a space was an undesirable if not illegal character in a filename let alone a directory name. Is this not the case? If it were illegal, I think that someone would have made a program alteration that would prevent you from putting a space in a directory name. I agree though, that it is undesirable. Paul -- To do is to be - Sartre To be is to do - Spinoza Do be do be do - Sinatra http://nlpagan.net - ICQ 147208 - Registered Linux User 174403 Linux Mandrake 7.2 - Pine 4.30
Re: [newbie] Spaces in names
Hey Mark ( John, I guess), I won't claim to know as much about Linux as Civileme, but I've picked up some things in the past year a half on RH 6.0. To open a file like: This File in, say pico, do this: $ pico "This File" You just need to add the quotes to any file or directory with spaces. Dunno about opening with Wine, as I'd had no luck getting it to run in RH. Good luck, Meph Ok...since you've said I will believe it. But then how does one navigate to these dir's that have spaced names, or how would one open such a file from a command line? Every time I've ever tried this, with the exception of doing it with Wine (and even then most times it fails), I get a message telling that there isn't any such file or directory. And by the way...how long will it take for someone to know as much about Linux as you apparently know? :) On Wed, 13 Dec 2000 civileme spake passionately saying! On Wednesday 13 December 2000 02:08, you wrote: Wait...I thought spaces "were/are" illegal in *nix? Mark Apparently Corel shares your thought. It is the same for the *.wpd files--no spaces allowad. But I DO have directories and filenames with spaces, and they work OK. It is easy to create or handle them from the GUI, but from a command line touch mark\ a\ blank #will make a file with blanks in the filename rm mark\ a\ blank will remove it Civileme
Re: [newbie] Spaces in names
Mark Weaver wrote: Ok...since you've said I will believe it. But then how does one navigate to these dir's that have spaced names, or how would one open such a file from a command line? Every time I've ever tried this, with the exception of doing it with Wine (and even then most times it fails), I get a message telling that there isn't any such file or directory. On Wed, 13 Dec 2000 civileme spake passionately saying! On Wednesday 13 December 2000 02:08, you wrote: Wait...I thought spaces "were/are" illegal in *nix? Mark Apparently Corel shares your thought. It is the same for the *.wpd files--no spaces allowad. But I DO have directories and filenames with spaces, and they work OK. It is easy to create or handle them from the GUI, but from a command line touch mark\ a\ blank #will make a file with blanks in the filename rm mark\ a\ blank will remove it Civileme I've been around opsys's/opsyses (oh Hell what is the plural??) of various flavours for nigh on 30 years - I've just spent an hour going through a bunch of manuals looking for filename definitions - in every case the rules have been "Alphanumeric only" and defines those characters as: A-Z, a-z, 0-9, and certain "punctuation characters" (tilde, underscore and period) In 6 cases there is an explicit admonition _NOT_ to use the SPACE character. On going back to "The Unix Programming Environment", I find only two rules: (I can't find my copy of "The UNIX Programmers Manual") 1 A filename may consist of a maximum of 14 printable characters 2 A filename may consist of almost any character - common sense says you should only use those which are printable. None of my *nix documentation actually tells which characters are explicitly illegal but does say that 'certain' characters must be 'handled' by means of 'escaping' but again I cannot find a definition of those characters which require 'special handling'. An interesting subject this, particularly on a newbie list !! I know that during these past 30-odd years, any tutoring/training etc in which I have taken part (both provider or student) that the space character should not be used in a filename. One manual suggests that a test for legality is whether the output of program1 may be used as the input to program2 _WITHOUT_ the need for special handling of the input to program2. Question arises out of all this as well, Does the UNIX limitation of 14 character filenames apply to linux? I'm sure I've seen some which 'appear' to have rather more... Cheers John -- ICQ#: 89345394 Mailto: [EMAIL PROTECTED] "The number of UNIX installations has grown to 10, with more expected" (The UNIX Programmer's Manual, 2nd Edition, June 1972.)
Re: [newbie] Spaces in names
Ok...since you've said I will believe it. But then how does one navigate to these dir's that have spaced names, or how would one open such a file from a command line? Every time I've ever tried this, with the exception of doing it with Wine (and even then most times it fails), I get a message telling that there isn't any such file or directory. And by the way...how long will it take for someone to know as much about Linux as you apparently know? :) -- Mark ### ## ...it's not a bug, it's a feature ## Registered Linux User # 182496 ## !-- Pine 4.31 -- # On Wed, 13 Dec 2000 civileme spake passionately saying! On Wednesday 13 December 2000 02:08, you wrote: Wait...I thought spaces "were/are" illegal in *nix? Mark Apparently Corel shares your thought. It is the same for the *.wpd files--no spaces allowad. But I DO have directories and filenames with spaces, and they work OK. It is easy to create or handle them from the GUI, but from a command line touch mark\ a\ blank #will make a file with blanks in the filename rm mark\ a\ blank will remove it Civileme On Tue, 12 Dec 2000 20:25:28 +0100 (CET), Paul said: On Wed, 13 Dec 2000, John Rye wrote: I would have thought that a space was an undesirable if not illegal character in a filename let alone a directory name. Is this not the case? If it were illegal, I think that someone would have made a program alteration that would prevent you from putting a space in a directory name. I agree though, that it is undesirable. Paul -- To do is to be - Sartre To be is to do - Spinoza Do be do be do - Sinatra http://nlpagan.net - ICQ 147208 - Registered Linux User 174403 Linux Mandrake 7.2 - Pine 4.30
Re: [newbie] Spaces in names
Alternatively, assuming you have a directory called "mydir for myprogram" you could do things like "cd mydir*myprogram" and "chown myname:mygroup mydir*myprogram". The only time I run into this is with guys at work who use Windows programs to create mp3s and don't choose the option in the program (assuming the Windows program has one) to convert spaces in the song titles to underscores. Holly Mark Weaver wrote: Well...when I attempt to navigate to a dir in a terminal window that has spaces in the name I'm told that "no such file or directory" exists and if I try to do a chmod, or chown or any type of attribute change on a file or dir with a space in the name, then this too fails. I don't think spaces "are" legal forms of naming. Otherwise wouldn't the OS allow this? I've never known any type *nix to allow this before. -- Mark ### ## ...it's not a bug, it's a feature ## Registered Linux User # 182496 ## !-- Pine 4.31 -- # On Wed, 13 Dec 2000 Sridhar Dhanapalan spake passionately saying! Spaces are not illegal at all - you can use them as you wish. I personally like to use spaces in file and directory names in order to keep my stuff organised. Most programmes support this, but there are a few that I've encountered that don't. I don't think it's a good idea to use spaces outside your home directories, unless you're sure this won't create any problems. On Wed, 13 Dec 2000 12:08, Mark's mail wrote: Wait...I thought spaces "were/are" illegal in *nix? Mark On Tue, 12 Dec 2000 20:25:28 +0100 (CET), Paul said: On Wed, 13 Dec 2000, John Rye wrote: I would have thought that a space was an undesirable if not illegal character in a filename let alone a directory name. Is this not the case? If it were illegal, I think that someone would have made a program alteration that would prevent you from putting a space in a directory name. I agree though, that it is undesirable. Paul -- To do is to be - Sartre To be is to do - Spinoza Do be do be do - Sinatra http://nlpagan.net - ICQ 147208 - Registered Linux User 174403 Linux Mandrake 7.2 - Pine 4.30
RE: [newbie] Spaces in names
The trouble with having spaces in directory or file names is that the shell interprets each bit of the name as a separate command line parameter and thinks "hang on , cd (or whatever) can only have one parameter. I'd better report an error" The answer is to type cd "my dir name thats got spaces in" The quotes cause the shell not to try and interpret the parameters but to pass them straight through to the command (ie cd) as a single string. This is a general technique for whenever you don't want the shell interpreting your parameters. Hope this helps Mike -Original Message- From: Holly Henry-Pilkington [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: 13 December 2000 16:18 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [newbie] Spaces in names Alternatively, assuming you have a directory called "mydir for myprogram" you could do things like "cd mydir*myprogram" and "chown myname:mygroup mydir*myprogram". The only time I run into this is with guys at work who use Windows programs to create mp3s and don't choose the option in the program (assuming the Windows program has one) to convert spaces in the song titles to underscores. Holly Mark Weaver wrote: Well...when I attempt to navigate to a dir in a terminal window that has spaces in the name I'm told that "no such file or directory" exists and if I try to do a chmod, or chown or any type of attribute change on a file or dir with a space in the name, then this too fails. I don't think spaces "are" legal forms of naming. Otherwise wouldn't the OS allow this? I've never known any type *nix to allow this before. -- Mark ### ## ...it's not a bug, it's a feature ## Registered Linux User # 182496 ## !-- Pine 4.31 -- # On Wed, 13 Dec 2000 Sridhar Dhanapalan spake passionately saying! Spaces are not illegal at all - you can use them as you wish. I personally like to use spaces in file and directory names in order to keep my stuff organised. Most programmes support this, but there are a few that I've encountered that don't. I don't think it's a good idea to use spaces outside your home directories, unless you're sure this won't create any problems. On Wed, 13 Dec 2000 12:08, Mark's mail wrote: Wait...I thought spaces "were/are" illegal in *nix? Mark On Tue, 12 Dec 2000 20:25:28 +0100 (CET), Paul said: On Wed, 13 Dec 2000, John Rye wrote: I would have thought that a space was an undesirable if not illegal character in a filename let alone a directory name. Is this not the case? If it were illegal, I think that someone would have made a program alteration that would prevent you from putting a space in a directory name. I agree though, that it is undesirable. Paul -- To do is to be - Sartre To be is to do - Spinoza Do be do be do - Sinatra http://nlpagan.net - ICQ 147208 - Registered Linux User 174403 Linux Mandrake 7.2 - Pine 4.30
Re: [newbie] Spaces in names
hey Mark, someone will probably get to this reply before me, but i think it's as simple as command "file or directory with spaces" and i believe this works with many / most of the linux commands. i have had some problems with gui programs and spaces in file names and i am gradually converting my directorys over to single words, simply to make naviagating at the command line easier but i have loads of files with spaces no major issues yet. *cross fingers* Adrian Smith 'de telepone dude Telecom Dept. x 7042 [EMAIL PROTECTED] Mark Weaver [EMAIL PROTECTED] 5:51:19 AM 12/13/00 Ok...since you've said I will believe it. But then how does one navigate to these dir's that have spaced names, or how would one open such a file from a command line? Every time I've ever tried this, with the exception of doing it with Wine (and even then most times it fails), I get a message telling that there isn't any such file or directory. And by the way...how long will it take for someone to know as much about Linux as you apparently know? :) -- Mark ### ## ...it's not a bug, it's a feature ## Registered Linux User # 182496 ## !-- Pine 4.31 -- # On Wed, 13 Dec 2000 civileme spake passionately saying! On Wednesday 13 December 2000 02:08, you wrote: Wait...I thought spaces "were/are" illegal in *nix? Mark Apparently Corel shares your thought. It is the same for the *.wpd files--no spaces allowad. But I DO have directories and filenames with spaces, and they work OK. It is easy to create or handle them from the GUI, but from a command line touch mark\ a\ blank #will make a file with blanks in the filename rm mark\ a\ blank will remove it Civileme On Tue, 12 Dec 2000 20:25:28 +0100 (CET), Paul said: On Wed, 13 Dec 2000, John Rye wrote: I would have thought that a space was an undesirable if not illegal character in a filename let alone a directory name. Is this not the case? If it were illegal, I think that someone would have made a program alteration that would prevent you from putting a space in a directory name. I agree though, that it is undesirable. Paul -- To do is to be - Sartre To be is to do - Spinoza Do be do be do - Sinatra http://nlpagan.net - ICQ 147208 - Registered Linux User 174403 Linux Mandrake 7.2 - Pine 4.30
Re: [newbie] Spaces in names
Adrian, So what you're saying is to enclose the file or dir name in double quotes? -- Mark ### ## ...it's not a bug, it's a feature ## Registered Linux User # 182496 ## !-- Pine 4.31 -- # On Wed, 13 Dec 2000 Adrian Smith spake passionately saying! hey Mark, someone will probably get to this reply before me, but i think it's as simple as command "file or directory with spaces" and i believe this works with many / most of the linux commands. i have had some problems with gui programs and spaces in file names and i am gradually converting my directorys over to single words, simply to make naviagating at the command line easier but i have loads of files with spaces no major issues yet. *cross fingers* Adrian Smith 'de telepone dude Telecom Dept. x 7042 [EMAIL PROTECTED] Mark Weaver [EMAIL PROTECTED] 5:51:19 AM 12/13/00 Ok...since you've said I will believe it. But then how does one navigate to these dir's that have spaced names, or how would one open such a file from a command line? Every time I've ever tried this, with the exception of doing it with Wine (and even then most times it fails), I get a message telling that there isn't any such file or directory. And by the way...how long will it take for someone to know as much about Linux as you apparently know? :)
Re: [newbie] Spaces in names
opsysii? bascule I've been around opsys's/opsyses (oh Hell what is the plural??) of
Re: [newbie] Spaces in names
exactly. this is what i have read. i have only used it a few times myself, such as cd "all of my writing" to change to my directory called 'all of my writing' as i mentioned, i'm renaming my directories so it's easier to navagate, but as to file names... not really. to many of those. so i believe that something such as gimp "picture of cute girl.jpg" would also work can't say i have actually tried this however. but it seems that i read someplace that this works with most command line funtions in linux. Adrian Smith 'de telepone dude Telecom Dept. x 7042 [EMAIL PROTECTED] Mark Weaver [EMAIL PROTECTED] 5:48:14 PM 12/13/00 Adrian, So what you're saying is to enclose the file or dir name in double quotes? -- Mark ### ## ...it's not a bug, it's a feature ## Registered Linux User # 182496 ## !-- Pine 4.31 -- # On Wed, 13 Dec 2000 Adrian Smith spake passionately saying! hey Mark, someone will probably get to this reply before me, but i think it's as simple as command "file or directory with spaces" and i believe this works with many / most of the linux commands. i have had some problems with gui programs and spaces in file names and i am gradually converting my directorys over to single words, simply to make naviagating at the command line easier but i have loads of files with spaces no major issues yet. *cross fingers* Adrian Smith 'de telepone dude Telecom Dept. x 7042 [EMAIL PROTECTED] Mark Weaver [EMAIL PROTECTED] 5:51:19 AM 12/13/00 Ok...since you've said I will believe it. But then how does one navigate to these dir's that have spaced names, or how would one open such a file from a command line? Every time I've ever tried this, with the exception of doing it with Wine (and even then most times it fails), I get a message telling that there isn't any such file or directory. And by the way...how long will it take for someone to know as much about Linux as you apparently know? :)
Re: [newbie] Spaces in names
John, Whoa! Talk about obsessive;-). But dude, isn't life just a little dull explicitly playing by the rules? I honestly don't know how many, but I've had (in RH 6.0 likely ~will~ have in mdk 7.2 after installing this weekend) numerous files with spaces, exceeding 14 characters, even some illegal characters. I think the deal is to go with what works. There's always time to fix stuff when things go bad. How else do we learn? Meph I've been around opsys's/opsyses (oh Hell what is the plural??) of various flavours for nigh on 30 years - I've just spent an hour going through a bunch of manuals looking for filename definitions - in every case the rules have been "Alphanumeric only" and defines those characters as: A-Z, a-z, 0-9, and certain "punctuation characters" (tilde, underscore and period) In 6 cases there is an explicit admonition _NOT_ to use the SPACE character. On going back to "The Unix Programming Environment", I find only two rules: (I can't find my copy of "The UNIX Programmers Manual") 1 A filename may consist of a maximum of 14 printable characters 2 A filename may consist of almost any character - common sense says you should only use those which are printable. None of my *nix documentation actually tells which characters are explicitly illegal but does say that 'certain' characters must be 'handled' by means of 'escaping' but again I cannot find a definition of those characters which require 'special handling'. An interesting subject this, particularly on a newbie list !! I know that during these past 30-odd years, any tutoring/training etc in which I have taken part (both provider or student) that the space character should not be used in a filename. One manual suggests that a test for legality is whether the output of program1 may be used as the input to program2 _WITHOUT_ the need for special handling of the input to program2. Question arises out of all this as well, Does the UNIX limitation of 14 character filenames apply to linux? I'm sure I've seen some which 'appear' to have rather more... Cheers John
Re: [newbie] Spaces in names
Mark Weaver wrote: Ok...since you've said I will believe it. But then how does one navigate to these dir's that have spaced names, or how would one open such a file from a command line? Every time I've ever tried this, with the exception of doing it with Wine (and even then most times it fails), I get a message telling that there isn't any such file or directory. Usually, the system fills in these spaces with the \ character, I think? I know I just usually type in a partial name, then use tab for completion. Try that and see what happens... And by the way...how long will it take for someone to know as much about Linux as you apparently know? :) I'm assuming you're talking about Civileme here, and I agree with you - I want to grow up to be like him! smile -- /\ DarkLord \/
RE: [newbie] Spaces in names
Anyone ever used the tab key on the command line? Type command (like: cat) and then type the first few characters of the file name and hit tab to auto complete the name. Works with files with spaces in them. Also, works after typing a few characters of a command. HTH, Bill -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of Adrian Smith Sent: Wednesday, December 13, 2000 9:33 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [newbie] Spaces in names exactly. this is what i have read. i have only used it a few times myself, such as cd "all of my writing" to change to my directory called 'all of my writing' as i mentioned, i'm renaming my directories so it's easier to navagate, but as to file names... not really. to many of those. so i believe that something such as gimp "picture of cute girl.jpg" would also work can't say i have actually tried this however. but it seems that i read someplace that this works with most command line funtions in linux. Adrian Smith 'de telepone dude Telecom Dept. x 7042 [EMAIL PROTECTED] Mark Weaver [EMAIL PROTECTED] 5:48:14 PM 12/13/00 Adrian, So what you're saying is to enclose the file or dir name in double quotes? -- Mark ### ## ...it's not a bug, it's a feature ## Registered Linux User # 182496 ## !-- Pine 4.31 -- # On Wed, 13 Dec 2000 Adrian Smith spake passionately saying! hey Mark, someone will probably get to this reply before me, but i think it's as simple as command "file or directory with spaces" and i believe this works with many / most of the linux commands. i have had some problems with gui programs and spaces in file names and i am gradually converting my directorys over to single words, simply to make naviagating at the command line easier but i have loads of files with spaces no major issues yet. *cross fingers* Adrian Smith 'de telepone dude Telecom Dept. x 7042 [EMAIL PROTECTED] Mark Weaver [EMAIL PROTECTED] 5:51:19 AM 12/13/00 Ok...since you've said I will believe it. But then how does one navigate to these dir's that have spaced names, or how would one open such a file from a command line? Every time I've ever tried this, with the exception of doing it with Wine (and even then most times it fails), I get a message telling that there isn't any such file or directory. And by the way...how long will it take for someone to know as much about Linux as you apparently know? :)
Re: [newbie] Spaces in names
Wait...I thought spaces "were/are" illegal in *nix? Mark On Tue, 12 Dec 2000 20:25:28 +0100 (CET), Paul said: On Wed, 13 Dec 2000, John Rye wrote: I would have thought that a space was an undesirable if not illegal character in a filename let alone a directory name. Is this not the case? If it were illegal, I think that someone would have made a program alteration that would prevent you from putting a space in a directory name. I agree though, that it is undesirable. Paul -- To do is to be - Sartre To be is to do - Spinoza Do be do be do - Sinatra http://nlpagan.net - ICQ 147208 - Registered Linux User 174403 Linux Mandrake 7.2 - Pine 4.30
Re: [newbie] Spaces in names
Spaces are not illegal at all - you can use them as you wish. I personally like to use spaces in file and directory names in order to keep my stuff organised. Most programmes support this, but there are a few that I've encountered that don't. I don't think it's a good idea to use spaces outside your home directories, unless you're sure this won't create any problems. On Wed, 13 Dec 2000 12:08, Mark's mail wrote: Wait...I thought spaces "were/are" illegal in *nix? Mark On Tue, 12 Dec 2000 20:25:28 +0100 (CET), Paul said: On Wed, 13 Dec 2000, John Rye wrote: I would have thought that a space was an undesirable if not illegal character in a filename let alone a directory name. Is this not the case? If it were illegal, I think that someone would have made a program alteration that would prevent you from putting a space in a directory name. I agree though, that it is undesirable. Paul -- To do is to be - Sartre To be is to do - Spinoza Do be do be do - Sinatra http://nlpagan.net - ICQ 147208 - Registered Linux User 174403 Linux Mandrake 7.2 - Pine 4.30 -- Sridhar Dhanapalan. Your mouse has moved. Windows must be rebooted to acknowledge this change.