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Questions tagged [filenames]

A filename (also written as two words, file name) is a name used to uniquely identify a computer file stored in a file system. Filenames are a human-friendly label for the references or pointers that operating systems use to identify files within a file system.

A filename (also written as two words, file name) is a name used to uniquely identify a computer file stored in a file system. Filenames are a human-friendly label for the references or pointers that operating systems use to identify files within a file system.

467 questions
93
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5 answers

What characters are safe in cross-platform file names for Linux, Windows and OS-X

Currently, I use a YYMMDD-NAME+PAGE name for most of my files. NAME has spaces converted to underscores. I'd like to use the YYYY-MM-DD date format, but I am not sure how to separate it from the name. A - would look strange if the name started with…
Martin Ueding
  • 2,375
51
votes
6 answers

What does the ~ mean in a file path?

What does the ~ mean in an absolute file path? I see this in the output of things like build scripts but the path does not exist.
blade34r
  • 519
14
votes
6 answers

How would I go about creating a filename with invalid characters such as :?> ?

I need to do create a file with a filename such as :>?, is this possible somehow? Windows stops it.
moorecats
  • 149
4
votes
2 answers

How to find out the name and path of a running gui application on linux?

I am interested to learn more about my system. Started for example a GUI application "Printing". A shiny nice name in the title. There is no file "printing" in /usr/bin. Is there some trick to show the real name of the application in the filesystem…
James Mitch
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4
votes
1 answer

In the quest for the perfect file naming scheme: spaces, dash and underscores

I am trying to define a robust file naming scheme to be used across the systems I am using. I work in university labs and I deal with all the three major OS: linux, macos, windows. Therefore I'd like to stick on something that can be easily used for…
PinkCollins
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2
votes
3 answers

Does one really need to use file extensions for files stored on their hard drive?

Most of us always append file extensions to the filename for almost every file we save. However, how necessary is it actually? For instance, most Linux software works with files that do not have extensions just fine.
Arseny
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1
vote
2 answers

backing up files with a long file name comupter pc [dell] windows8.1

I am trying to back up my cloud [desktop application] [sugar sync, dropbox] to a western digital [i have 500gb,1T and 2T] Somewhere i can't continue as it says that the file name is too long!? I can skip and go further but i discovered that many…
harold bueno de mesquta
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0 answers

Tool/method to reformat filenames

Possible Duplicate: How can I mass rename files from the command line or using a 3rd party tool? I get lots of files from a variety of sources whose names I need to clean up for safe consumption on the web. Specifically, I want to change all the…
ale
  • 3,380
0
votes
1 answer

What causes invalid characters (\\?\) to appear before a file path?

What causes invalid characters (\\?\) to appear before a file path only in certain folders? Invalid file path: \\?\D:\computerfiles... The files with the invalid path cannot be opened in the original folder. The \\?\ characters only appear for some…
bobkush
  • 390
0
votes
1 answer

How to recover value from regular expression

I'm not sure if I'm asking the right way or if it is possible at all. I want to change the name of some files using their own name. Let's assume I have file1, file2, and file3. I want to do something like: mv file* file{recover_number}_xyz To get:…
AFP_555
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0
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1 answer

Copy folder filenames ONLY to duplicate image folder

I have 400 Raw images edited and saved as Jpeg. I have individually re-named each Jpeg. (none sequential numbering-though the structure of the folder is identical to the original RAW files) I want to copy the jpeg filenames to the RAW image folder,…
Paul Knowles
  • 1
-1
votes
2 answers

Why do so many programs use "X" in their title, is this a convention that I am not aware of?

I might be misunderstanding, but OS X as an operating system, as well as programs like X11 (terminal program), Xming (visual interfacing with other servers), Xcode, and countless others that I can't think of at the moment. Is this a convention or…
ibanez221
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