control character file names

[Giorgos Keramidas]

On Sun, 14 Dec 2008 18:21:22 -0800, Noah <admin2 at enabled.com> wrote:
> Hi there,
>
> there is a blank directory that I cant seem to view.  I believe the
> directory is a '^M'.  can somebody please explain how I can see
> filenames and directories containing control characters.  Also how do
> I rename the directory with 'mv'?

There are quite a couple of options:

  *   Use the -B option of the `ls' utility.

      This should print the non-printable characters using octal
      numbers, i.e.:

        $ touch 'foo^Mbar'
        $ /bin/ls -lB foo*
        -rw-rw-r--  1 keramida  users  0 Dec 15 04:27 foo\015bar
        $

  *   Use a file manager.

      I often use `dired-mode' inside an Emacs session to move around,
      copy, re-organize, rename or delete files.  Any file manager that
      can display several character sets at once will do fine :)