The change seems minor, but there is a huge semantic difference between the first character of a file name, and the first character of a file

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Dealing with filesfile names with special first characters (ex. ♫)

I have recently come across a file whichwhose name begins with the character '♫'. I wanted to copy this file, feed it into ffmpeg, and reference it in various other ways in the terminal. I usually auto-complete weird filenames but this fails as I cannot even type the first letter.

I don't want to switch to the mouse to perform a copy-paste maneuver. I don't want to memorize a bunch of codes for possible scenarios. My ad hoc solution was to switch into vim, paste !ls and copy the character in question, then quit and paste it into the terminal. This worked but is quite horrific.

Is there an easier way to deal with such scenarios?

NOTE: I am using the fish shell if it changes things.

Dealing with files with special first characters (ex. ♫)

I have recently come across a file which begins with the character '♫'. I wanted to copy this file, feed it into ffmpeg, and reference it in various other ways in the terminal. I usually auto-complete weird filenames but this fails as I cannot even type the first letter.

I don't want to switch to the mouse to perform a copy-paste maneuver. I don't want to memorize a bunch of codes for possible scenarios. My ad hoc solution was to switch into vim, paste !ls and copy the character in question, then quit and paste it into the terminal. This worked but is quite horrific.

Is there an easier way to deal with such scenarios?

NOTE: I am using the fish shell if it changes things.

Dealing with file names with special first characters (ex. ♫)

I have recently come across a file whose name begins with the character '♫'. I wanted to copy this file, feed it into ffmpeg, and reference it in various other ways in the terminal. I usually auto-complete weird filenames but this fails as I cannot even type the first letter.

I don't want to switch to the mouse to perform a copy-paste maneuver. I don't want to memorize a bunch of codes for possible scenarios. My ad hoc solution was to switch into vim, paste !ls and copy the character in question, then quit and paste it into the terminal. This worked but is quite horrific.

Is there an easier way to deal with such scenarios?

NOTE: I am using the fish shell if it changes things.

edited tags

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edited Oct 6, 2014 at 14:07

jimmij

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Tweeted twitter.com/#!/StackUnix/status/519110780210257920

occurred Oct 6, 2014 at 13:03

added 15 characters in body; edited tags

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edited Oct 6, 2014 at 12:37

slm ♦

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I have recently come across a file which begins with the character '♫'. I wanted to copy this file, feed it into ffmpegffmpeg, and reference it in various other ways in the terminal. I usually auto-complete weird filenames but this fails as I cannot even type the first letter.

I don't want to switch to the mouse to perform a copy-paste manoeuvremaneuver. I don't want to memorize a bunch of codes for possible scenarios. My adhocad hoc solution was to switch into vimvim, paste !ls!ls and copy the character in question, then quit and paste it into the terminal. This worked but is quite horrific.

Is there an easier way to deal with such scenarios?

(INOTE: I am using the fish shell if it changes things).

I have recently come across a file which begins with the character '♫'. I wanted to copy this file, feed it into ffmpeg, and reference it in various other ways in the terminal. I usually auto-complete weird filenames but this fails as I cannot even type the first letter.

I don't want to switch to the mouse to perform a copy-paste manoeuvre. I don't want to memorize a bunch of codes for possible scenarios. My adhoc solution was to switch into vim, paste !ls and copy the character in question, then quit and paste it into the terminal. This worked but is quite horrific.

Is there an easier way to deal with such scenarios?

(I am using the fish shell if it changes things)

I have recently come across a file which begins with the character '♫'. I wanted to copy this file, feed it into ffmpeg, and reference it in various other ways in the terminal. I usually auto-complete weird filenames but this fails as I cannot even type the first letter.

I don't want to switch to the mouse to perform a copy-paste maneuver. I don't want to memorize a bunch of codes for possible scenarios. My ad hoc solution was to switch into vim, paste !ls and copy the character in question, then quit and paste it into the terminal. This worked but is quite horrific.

Is there an easier way to deal with such scenarios?

NOTE: I am using the fish shell if it changes things.

command-line terminal filenames special-characters fish