What characters are forbidden in Windows and Linux directory names?

Question

I know that / is illegal in Linux, and the following are illegal in Windows (I think) * . \" / \\ [

Answer 1

The easy way to get Windows to tell you the answer is to attempt to rename a file via Explorer and type in / for the new name. Windows will popup a message box telling you the list of illegal characters.

A filename cannot contain any of the following characters:
    \ / : * ? " < > | 

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/177506

Answer 2

As of 18/04/2017, no simple black or white list of characters and filenames is evident among the answers to this topic - and there are many replies.

The best suggestion I could come up with was to let the user name the file however he likes. Using an error handler when the application tries to save the file, catch any exceptions, assume the filename is to blame (obviously after making sure the save path was ok as well), and prompt the user for a new file name. For best results, place this checking procedure within a loop that continues until either the user gets it right or gives up. Worked best for me (at least in VBA).

Answer 3

A “comprehensive guide” of forbidden filename characters is not going to work on Windows because it reserves filenames as well as characters. Yes, characters like * " ? and others are forbidden, but there are a infinite number of names composed only of valid characters that are forbidden. For example, spaces and dots are valid filename characters, but names composed only of those characters are forbidden.

Windows does not distinguish between upper-case and lower-case characters, so you cannot create a folder named A if one named a already exists. Worse, seemingly-allowed names like PRN and CON, and many others, are reserved and not allowed. Windows also has several length restrictions; a filename valid in one folder may become invalid if moved to another folder. The rules for naming files and folders are on the Microsoft docs.

You cannot, in general, use user-generated text to create Windows directory names. If you want to allow users to name anything they want, you have to create safe names like A, AB, A2 et al., store user-generated names and their path equivalents in an application data file, and perform path mapping in your application.

If you absolutely must allow user-generated folder names, the only way to tell if they are invalid is to catch exceptions and assume the name is invalid. Even that is fraught with peril, as the exceptions thrown for denied access, offline drives, and out of drive space overlap with those that can be thrown for invalid names. You are opening up one huge can of hurt.

Answer 4

Though the only illegal Unix chars might be / and NULL, although some consideration for command line interpretation should be included.

For example, while it might be legal to name a file 1>&2 or 2>&1 in Unix, file names such as this might be misinterpreted when used on a command line.

Similarly it might be possible to name a file $PATH, but when trying to access it from the command line, the shell will translate $PATH to its variable value.

Answer 5

Under Linux and other Unix-related systems, there are only two characters that cannot appear in the name of a file or directory, and those are NUL '\0' and slash '/'. The slash, of course, can appear in a path name, separating directory components.

Rumour¹ has it that Steven Bourne (of 'shell' fame) had a directory containing 254 files, one for every single letter (character code) that can appear in a file name (excluding /, '\0'; the name . was the current directory, of course). It was used to test the Bourne shell and routinely wrought havoc on unwary programs such as backup programs.

Other people have covered the Windows rules.

Note that MacOS X has a case-insensitive file system.

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¹ It was Kernighan & Pike in The Practice of Programming who said as much in Chapter 6, Testing, §6.5 Stress Tests:

When Steve Bourne was writing his Unix shell (which came to be known as the Bourne shell), he made a directory of 254 files with one-character names, one for each byte value except '\0' and slash, the two characters that cannot appear in Unix file names. He used that directory for all manner of tests of pattern-matching and tokenization. (The test directory was of course created by a program.) For years afterwards, that directory was the bane of file-tree-walking programs; it tested them to destruction.

^{Note that the directory must have contained entries . and .., so it was arguably 253 files (and 2 directories), or 255 name entries, rather than 254 files. This doesn't affect the effectiveness of the anecdote, or the careful testing it describes.}

Answer 6

Well, if only for research purposes, then your best bet is to look at this Wikipedia entry on Filenames.

If you want to write a portable function to validate user input and create filenames based on that, the short answer is don't. Take a look at a portable module like Perl's File::Spec to have a glimpse to all the hops needed to accomplish such a "simple" task.