[SOLVED] Error while deleting a folder with messy characters

[Guest]

The problem is that when i get a folder with messy characters like

�_�ԫ

, i cannot do anything to it. Usually such folders appear after unpaching from archivers. While trying to rename or delete it, i get a message "error while deleting/renaming: the folder does not exist". Any sudos (like

sudo rm -rf

) also cannot do anything


i'm using kubuntu 10.04 KDE 4.4.2
Intel(R) Pentium(R) Dual CPU E2180

[askrieger]

Re: Error while deleting a folder with messy characters

That kind of thing is usually due to having programs that expect a particular character set, e.g. ISO-8859-(whatever) on a machine that is using a different character set, e.g. UTF8 or ISO-8859-(something else). I think some specifics on your part regarding localization settings and the applications that are having the problems would help. Unfortunately, this kind of problem sometimes requires the use of a different application because the developers of some particular application did not pay enough attention to internationalization. <begin rant>That is EXACTLY what international standards are for! <end rant>

[jlittle]

Re: Error while deleting a folder with messy characters

I agree with Al about the likely cause.

Two approaches that can work:
1.

 rm -ri *

and (carefully!) press enter past good directories, and type y and enter when you get a bad one.

2. (assuming you use bash)

 ls > /tmp/x

Then use your favourite editor on /tmp/x, and delete anything you want to keep, leaving only stuff to be deleted.

 rm -r $(</tmp/x)

HTH

[Ole Juul]

Re: Error while deleting a folder with messy characters

In this case you might want to mv instead of rm. I sometimes find autocompletion handy for broken file names. In fact I rarely type any file name without using the Tab key. Of course this implies that you are able to type at least the first letter.

[steph91]

Re: Error while deleting a folder with messy characters

I understand the problem, I posted something very similar 2 days ago.
http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...opic=3113319.0
Have a look, dibl gave a solution which might be useful to you.
Funnily that is more a problem I would expect having with Windows than Linux which is developped worldwide.
If it is just a matter of renaming and you can also use another distribution , in my case Sabayon detected all the characters , and allows me to open, modify, save, rename....the files in Dolphin or Konqueror.
As I mentioned in my post, the best would be to change the standards used by default in Ubuntu to international ones. Anyone can help here?

[MoonRise]

Re: Error while deleting a folder with messy characters

I has this issue many many months ago. Couldn't find the post that helped me. It was here in this forum but it's so buried I can't find it. Hope what Dibl posted helped. I'm trying to search for that post I did.

[MoonRise]

Re: Error while deleting a folder with messy characters

OK....Here it is.

http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...opic=3109662.0

[Guest]

Re: Error while deleting a folder with messy characters

ok. Thank you a lot. I'm going to save your replies in order to use them next time. Just several hours ago i've successfully deleted that folder in wine file browser (right-click, delete).
thank you for the help!

[MoonRise]

Re: [SOLVED] Error while deleting a folder with messy characters

Interesting approach. Never thought of that! I'll remember that if it happens again.