[Fwd: Re: deleting directories with ??? in name]

[Lowell Gilbert]

Walter <walterk1 at earthlink.net> writes:

> I managed to delete the files by recreating the directory.
> 
> Not to seem ungrateful, but isn't it a Bad Thing that it
> is not straightforeward to delete any file on the system
> (as root, and thwarted merely because of the characters in
> the name of the file/directory)?  I'm not in a position to
> mangle lynx, but oughtn't it to be able to zap ANY file
> regardless of its name? (emacs is obtuse to me.) Is this
> worthy of a PR?  Or are there other ways to kill a
> malconforming file?  Why should an annonomous FTP user
> be able to create a directory tree that the root account
> of the machine can't traverse and delete normally? (Sigh.)

It sounds like you're just unfamiliar with shell quoting rules.
Maybe you'd find it easier with a different shell?  [root uses
csh by default, which I find much more arcane than sh]