Why is my directory getting quotes around it when created?

Question

I create a directory called [email protected]/

I wanted to use this email address as the directory name - I know - not a good idea for many reasons - but lets assume this is a very temporary directory that I delete seconds later :)

I give the command

mkdir [email protected]

However when I check the directory I see it actually created it with quotes around it.

...
'[email protected]`
...

I then found this is due to the @

What are the rules for special characters in directory names and how does the system decide to quote them

Could you copy and paste the output from `ls` into your question? Or does it really end with a backtick? — Stephen Kitt, Nov 13 '19 at 15:31
Is your `ls` aliased to `ls --quoting-style=locale`? That's the only way I can replicate it. (although I get surrounding unicode quotes, not single quotes or backticks) — Jeff Schaller, Nov 13 '19 at 15:42
@jeff, yes it is and i think that is indeed part of the issue. ty — Michael Durrant, Nov 13 '19 at 16:02
'cos `/usr/bin/ls` doesn't have the issue. My ls is an alias to `alias ls='ls -F --color=al'` — Michael Durrant, Nov 13 '19 at 16:03
@Michael I don't understand the connection to `-F` or `--color=al(ways)`, so I posted my guess (the quoting-style) in an Answer. — Jeff Schaller, Nov 13 '19 at 17:05
The presence of quotes is a really irritating non-backwards-compatible change to the `ls` command. You can revert it with `export QUOTING_STYLE=literal`. — roaima, Nov 13 '19 at 17:12

score 6 · Accepted Answer · edited Nov 13 '19 at 17:27

6

This is just the way that ls displays the name, and does not mean that the name contains literal quotes.

If your ls is aliased to use --quoting-style=locale, that would produce:

‘[email protected]’

... with unicode "LEFT SINGLE QUOTATION MARK" and "RIGHT SINGLE QUOTATION MARK" characters surrounding the filename(s).

edited Nov 13 '19 at 17:27

Kusalananda

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answered Nov 13 '19 at 17:04

Jeff Schaller

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Why is my directory getting quotes around it when created?

1 Answers1