From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: from aldebaran.he1ix.org (unknown [IPv6:2a01:4f8:173:803:0:a1de:ba:a]) by sourceware.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id C7B863857C73 for ; Wed, 10 Nov 2021 09:46:23 +0000 (GMT) DMARC-Filter: OpenDMARC Filter v1.4.1 sourceware.org C7B863857C73 Authentication-Results: sourceware.org; dmarc=none (p=none dis=none) header.from=emmenlauer.de Authentication-Results: sourceware.org; spf=tempfail smtp.mailfrom=emmenlauer.de Received: from port-213-160-25-97.static.as20676.net ([213.160.25.97] helo=[192.168.33.170]) by aldebaran.he1ix.org with esmtpsa (TLS1.3) tls TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256 (Exim 4.93) (envelope-from ) id 1mkkB1-00H1qm-Kt for cygwin@cygwin.com; Wed, 10 Nov 2021 10:45:56 +0100 Message-ID: Date: Wed, 10 Nov 2021 10:45:53 +0100 MIME-Version: 1.0 User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:91.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/91.3.0 Content-Language: en-US To: cygwin@cygwin.com From: Mario Emmenlauer Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-SA-Exim-Connect-IP: 213.160.25.97 X-SA-Exim-Mail-From: mario@emmenlauer.de X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on server2.sourceware.org X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-3.6 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00, KAM_DMARC_STATUS, MAY_BE_FORGED, TXREP, T_SPF_HELO_TEMPERROR, T_SPF_PERMERROR autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 Subject: Could rm remove files and folders with colon in their name? X-SA-Exim-Version: 4.2.1 (built Sat, 08 Feb 2020 21:53:50 +0000) X-SA-Exim-Scanned: Yes (on aldebaran.he1ix.org) X-BeenThere: cygwin@cygwin.com X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.29 Precedence: list List-Id: General Cygwin discussions and problem reports List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 10 Nov 2021 09:47:00 -0000 Dear All, I've searched if this topic has come up before but could not find it. Could 'rm' support removing files and folders that have a colon ':' in their name? I.e. I would like that 'rm -fr' would remove a full directory tree, including such folders. Currently it will correctly remove anything inside such folders, but not the folder itself. As an example, for the following structure: C:/root/folder/C:/inside/file.txt When using 'rm -fr root', afterwards I have: C:/root/folder/C: To remove everything, I can use 'find root -depth -exec rmdir \{\} \;' I understand that files and folders with colon in their name are illegal on Windows and not supported very well. But a number of tools manage to create (and also remove) such files. I've found that even the native 'del' can support this when using the UNC name (see for example https://serverfault.com/a/96833). It would be great if Cygwin could also feature this support. All the best, Mario PS: These folders are created when I use the Cygwin-based build system for ICU (see https://unicode-org.github.io/icu/userguide/icu4c/build.html#how-to-build-and-install-on-windows-with-cygwin) For me this is in a combination with native Perl for Windows (ActivePerl, in my case), and using absolute build paths. After using ICU's build system, I can not remove the build tree anymore. It may be possible to solve this on the ICU side too. But their automake-and-Perl-based path mangling is not easily modified, and I've failed to isolate the root cause of the illegal paths.