Does Paperclip automatically clean up filenames?

Question

I\'m using Thoughtbot\'s Paperclip gem to handle file uploads.

I\'m finding that when I upload a file with spaces in the filename, it gets stored with the spaces replace

Answer 1

OK, after a little more searching, I found this blog post that says, down at the bottom, that Paperclip actually does some minimal processing of filenames.

Answer 2

To add a little more information, this happens in Paperclip::Attachment#cleanup_filename in which the default restricted_characters /[&$+,/:;=?@<>[]{}\|\\^~%# ]/ are replaced with underscores.

It's not documented, but you can specify the :restricted_characters option to paperclip to change what gets replaced, e.g.

class User < ActiveRecord::Base
  attr_accessible :avatar
  has_attached_file :avatar, :restricted_characters => /@/ # only replaces '@'
end