# \*nix filename with VI problem **URL:** \ **Category:** Chatting over the Back Fence\ **Created:** [February 21, 2013, 8:23pm UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/nix-filename-with-vi-problem/23660 "2013-02-21T20:23:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![System1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/51bf81/32.png) [@System1](https://forums.suse.com/u/System1)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2013, 8:23pm UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/nix-filename-with-vi-problem/23660/1 "2013-02-21T20:23:00Z")
Any ideas on how to open a file named 1234-12-1234 in vi? Can’t seem to get it to interpret the dashes. I could rename it, edit it and rename it back to what it is but seems a bit daft to do it that way. ---
**Author:** ![Hspeirs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/df705f/32.png) [@Hspeirs](https://forums.suse.com/u/Hspeirs)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2013, 8:27pm UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/nix-filename-with-vi-problem/23660/2 "2013-02-21T20:27:28Z")
On 2/21/2013 12:23 PM, GofBorg wrote:[color=blue] > Any ideas on how to open a file named 1234-12-1234 in vi? > Can’t seem to get it to interpret the dashes. I could rename it, edit it and > rename it back to what it is but seems a bit daft to do it that way. > > [/color] vi 1234\-\12\-1234 H. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/uploads/suse/original/2X/5/5012ba89e3ffb5220dac47d5ea0ba032e2fe1cb6.png) [@system](https://forums.suse.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2013, 8:45pm UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/nix-filename-with-vi-problem/23660/3 "2013-02-21T20:45:01Z")
Haitch wrote: [color=blue] > On 2/21/2013 12:23 PM, GofBorg wrote:[color=green] > > > Any ideas on how to open a file named 1234-12-1234 in vi? > > Can’t seem to get it to interpret the dashes. I could rename it, edit it > > and rename it back to what it is but seems a bit daft to do it that way. > > > > [/color] > > vi 1234\-\12\-1234 > > H.[/color] > Oooo I was so close… vi 1234\-\12\-\1234 I see my mistake now. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/uploads/suse/original/2X/5/5012ba89e3ffb5220dac47d5ea0ba032e2fe1cb6.png) [@system](https://forums.suse.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2013, 8:45pm UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/nix-filename-with-vi-problem/23660/4 "2013-02-21T20:45:53Z")
Haitch wrote: [color=blue] > On 2/21/2013 12:23 PM, GofBorg wrote:[color=green] > > > Any ideas on how to open a file named 1234-12-1234 in vi? > > Can’t seem to get it to interpret the dashes. I could rename it, edit it > > and rename it back to what it is but seems a bit daft to do it that way. > > > > [/color] > > vi 1234\-\12\-1234 > > H.[/color] > Hmmm…didn’t work either. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/uploads/suse/original/2X/5/5012ba89e3ffb5220dac47d5ea0ba032e2fe1cb6.png) [@system](https://forums.suse.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2013, 8:48pm UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/nix-filename-with-vi-problem/23660/5 "2013-02-21T20:48:46Z")
> Haitch wrote:[color=blue] > [color=green] > > > On 2/21/2013 12:23 PM, GofBorg wrote:[color=darkred] > > > > > Any ideas on how to open a file named 1234-12-1234 in vi? > > > Can’t seem to get it to interpret the dashes. I could rename it, edit it > > > and rename it back to what it is but seems a bit daft to do it that way. > > > > > > [/color] > > > > vi 1234\-\12\-1234 > > > > H.[/color] > > Hmmm…didn’t work either.[/color] Normally in such a case I would just do vi 1234\* but there are numerous files beginning with 1234…too many to open/close. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/uploads/suse/original/2X/5/5012ba89e3ffb5220dac47d5ea0ba032e2fe1cb6.png) [@system](https://forums.suse.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2013, 8:55pm UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/nix-filename-with-vi-problem/23660/6 "2013-02-21T20:55:45Z")
I found the issue. Thanks for the help. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/uploads/suse/original/2X/5/5012ba89e3ffb5220dac47d5ea0ba032e2fe1cb6.png) [@system](https://forums.suse.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2013, 9:01pm UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/nix-filename-with-vi-problem/23660/7 "2013-02-21T21:01:44Z")
GofBorg wrote: [color=blue] > Any ideas on how to open a file named 1234-12-1234 in vi? > Can’t seem to get it to interpret the dashes. I could rename it, edit > it and rename it back to what it is but seems a bit daft to do it > that way.[/color] vi “1234-12-1234” – Does this washcloth smell like chloroform? ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/uploads/suse/original/2X/5/5012ba89e3ffb5220dac47d5ea0ba032e2fe1cb6.png) [@system](https://forums.suse.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2013, 9:12pm UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/nix-filename-with-vi-problem/23660/8 "2013-02-21T21:12:41Z")
> [color=blue] > vi “1234-12-1234”[/color] That works as well. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/uploads/suse/original/2X/5/5012ba89e3ffb5220dac47d5ea0ba032e2fe1cb6.png) [@system](https://forums.suse.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2013, 9:49pm UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/nix-filename-with-vi-problem/23660/9 "2013-02-21T21:49:24Z")
On Thu, 21 Feb 2013 19:12:41 +0000, GofBorg wrote: [color=blue][color=green] > > vi “1234-12-1234”[/color] > > That works as well. Thanks.[/color] Opened fine here on a Linux box without quotes or escaping any characters. Jim – Jim Henderson, CNA6, CDE, CNI, LPIC-1, CLA10, CLP10 Novell Knowledge Partner ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/uploads/suse/original/2X/5/5012ba89e3ffb5220dac47d5ea0ba032e2fe1cb6.png) [@system](https://forums.suse.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2013, 12:47am UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/nix-filename-with-vi-problem/23660/10 "2013-02-22T00:47:33Z")
On 02/21/2013 12:49 PM, Jim Henderson wrote:[color=blue] > On Thu, 21 Feb 2013 19:12:41 +0000, GofBorg wrote: > > [color=green][color=darkred] > > > > vi “1234-12-1234”[/color] > > > > That works as well. Thanks.[/color] > > Opened fine here on a Linux box without quotes or escaping any characters.[/color] Yeah, there is nothing special about a hypen/dash in the filesystem. Use tab-completion if nothing else, but my guess is that something about those characters is non-standard, like they’re odd hyphens that you can get from stupid word processors… like curly-quotes that show up in nice ASCII text files and look broken because they’re non-ASCII. In that case merely typing the hyphen directly could fail because, literally, its not the same character. Again, tab-completion vi 1 #then press [tab] Good luck. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/uploads/suse/original/2X/5/5012ba89e3ffb5220dac47d5ea0ba032e2fe1cb6.png) [@system](https://forums.suse.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2013, 1:45am UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/nix-filename-with-vi-problem/23660/11 "2013-02-22T01:45:49Z")
On Thu, 21 Feb 2013 22:47:33 +0000, ab wrote: [color=blue] > On 02/21/2013 12:49 PM, Jim Henderson wrote:[color=green] > > > On Thu, 21 Feb 2013 19:12:41 +0000, GofBorg wrote: > > > > [color=darkred] > > > > > > vi “1234-12-1234” > > > > > > That works as well. Thanks.[/color] > > > > Opened fine here on a Linux box without quotes or escaping any > > characters.[/color] > > Yeah, there is nothing special about a hypen/dash in the filesystem.[/color] Well, there’s one time it’s a problem - as the first character in the filename, or (OK, two) after a space in the filename if the space isn’t properly escaped. Jim – Jim Henderson, CNA6, CDE, CNI, LPIC-1, CLA10, CLP10 Novell Knowledge Partner