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File Names
- 1 to 255 characters long,
- Lower case and upper case characters are different.
Example :file.txt
andFile.txt
are different files. - File names can contain any character but "
/
".
However, file names should only contain the following characters:
"a
", ... "z
",
"A
", ... "Z
",
"0
", ... "9
",
"-
", "_
",
".
" because:
- Many characters have special meaning for the shell, and must be
"escaped" with a preceding "
\
". - Using only ASCII characters, file names remain the same across operating systems and and whatever the character set used.
For example, in a graphical user interface, one can click on a file name
which contains a space character; but in a shell, such a file has to be written
file\ name\ with\ spaces.txt
or
"file name with spaces.txt"
or
'file name with spaces.txt'
.