File naming
Strings of 1 or more characters may be used to name a regular file,
directory file or special file.
The characters may be any from the set of all character values excluding
``null'' and ``slash'', ``/''.
The following are examples of legal directory or file names:
memo MEMO section2 ref:list
file.d chap3+4 item1-10 outline
A regular file, special file or directory may have any name that conforms to the following rules:
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All characters other than / are legal.
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Non-printing characters including space, tab and backspace, are best avoided.
If you use a space or tab in a directory or filename, you must enclose the name in quotation-marks on the command-line.
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Note that it is generally unwise to use ``*'', ``?'',
``!'', ``['' or ``]''
as part of filenames because of the special meaning given these characters
for filename expansion by the command interpreter (see
system(3S)).
Other characters to avoid are the hyphen, ``<'',
``>'', backslash, single and double quotes,
accent grave, vertical bar, caret, curly braces and parentheses.
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Avoid using a ``+'', ``-'' or ``.'' as the first character
in a filename.
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Upper case and lower case characters are
distinct to the UNIX system.
For example, the system considers a directory (or file) named draft
to be different from one named DRAFT.
Next topic:
Path names
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A sample file system
© 2004 The SCO Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
UnixWare 7 Release 7.1.4 - 27 April 2004