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Old 1st April 2011
divadgnol67 divadgnol67 is offline
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Default deleting a file or directory

This is not an openbsd question per se. But I am unable to delete the following directory > "Pink_Floyd-Wish_You_Were_Here_(Japan,_TOCP-65560)"

I alwas get the following error > "syntax error: `(' unexpected"

I know this must be a complete newb problem but I swear I'm not a complete newb. If the answer requires further study of a man page or understanding of syntax please point me in the right direction.

Thanks,

divadgnol67
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Old 1st April 2011
divadgnol67 divadgnol67 is offline
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Obvoiusly quotes are not part of directory name. I am able to access files inside of directory via mp3blaster
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Old 1st April 2011
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jggimi jggimi is offline
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You cannot delete this because the file name includes shell special characters, such as "(" and ")".

You should be able to delete by tab completion, if the shell you are using has the feature (and the default ksh should have it), or escape them manually with a backslash "\" character, or by surrounding the filename with quote characters (").

Have you tried just using tab completion? e.g.:
$ rm -rf Pink {press your tab key after typing the first part of the directory name}
Some special names, such as those that begin with a special character like "+" can also be deleted by leading the filename with the directory. For example, to delete a file called +CONTENTS in the current directory, you can do so by issuing:
$ rm ./+CONTENTS
So in this case, you might try:
$ rm -rf ./Pink {tab completion}
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Old 1st April 2011
BSDfan666 BSDfan666 is offline
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If there is no other directory that starts with "Pink", just rm -rf Pink*
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Old 1st April 2011
divadgnol67 divadgnol67 is offline
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That worked....Thank you both very much. What documentation can I study up on to get a better understanding of special shell characters. Is there a man page for me to read. Thanks again, really.
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Old 1st April 2011
divadgnol67 divadgnol67 is offline
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One day I hope to able to contribute back and help someone like myself. You both have helped me several times in the past to gaining a better understanding of unix and openbsd.
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Old 1st April 2011
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The man page for the shell you are using is a great place to start. e.g.: for ksh, use the "man ksh" command, then use the search feature ("/<keyword>") to find what you're looking for.

In this case, try /Command syntax
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Old 1st April 2011
divadgnol67 divadgnol67 is offline
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Will do, thanks.
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