Escape a mm/dd/YY backup date in a file name
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I have been trying to:
cp file.csv file.$(date +%D).csv
But it fails because the filenames is: file.03/27/19.csv with the slash of separate directories.
And I have been trying again to:
cp file.csv file.$(printf "%q" $(date +%D)).csv
But it still fails.
shell filenames date escape-characters slash
edited Mar 28 at 9:27
Stéphane Chazelas
313k57592948
asked Mar 27 at 17:27
tres.14159tres.14159
4314
add a comment |
I have been trying to:
cp file.csv file.$(date +%D).csv
But it fails because the filenames is: file.03/27/19.csv with the slash of separate directories.
And I have been trying again to:
cp file.csv file.$(printf "%q" $(date +%D)).csv
But it still fails.
shell filenames date escape-characters slash
edited Mar 28 at 9:27
Stéphane Chazelas
313k57592948
asked Mar 27 at 17:27
tres.14159tres.14159
4314
You can not set a filename with slash characters: stackoverflow.com/questions/9847288/…
– tres.14159
Mar 27 at 17:31
the problem is your use of thedateformat using the/character. You said it yourself, the shell is seeing them as directory markers. Try one of the many other options available fromdate. You might be able to get the / escaped so the filename uses the character code (like putting a space in a filename), but that is often problematic.
– 0xSheepdog
Mar 27 at 17:32
add a comment |
I have been trying to:
cp file.csv file.$(date +%D).csv
But it fails because the filenames is: file.03/27/19.csv with the slash of separate directories.
And I have been trying again to:
cp file.csv file.$(printf "%q" $(date +%D)).csv
But it still fails.
shell filenames date escape-characters slash
edited Mar 28 at 9:27
Stéphane Chazelas
313k57592948
asked Mar 27 at 17:27
tres.14159tres.14159
4314
I have been trying to:
cp file.csv file.$(date +%D).csv
But it fails because the filenames is: file.03/27/19.csv with the slash of separate directories.
And I have been trying again to:
cp file.csv file.$(printf "%q" $(date +%D)).csv
But it still fails.
shell filenames date escape-characters slash
shell filenames date escape-characters slash
edited Mar 28 at 9:27
Stéphane Chazelas
313k57592948
asked Mar 27 at 17:27
tres.14159tres.14159
4314
edited Mar 28 at 9:27
Stéphane Chazelas
313k57592948
asked Mar 27 at 17:27
tres.14159tres.14159
4314
edited Mar 28 at 9:27
Stéphane Chazelas
313k57592948
edited Mar 28 at 9:27
Stéphane Chazelas
313k57592948
edited Mar 28 at 9:27
Stéphane Chazelas
313k57592948
313k57592948
asked Mar 27 at 17:27
tres.14159tres.14159
4314
asked Mar 27 at 17:27
tres.14159tres.14159
4314
asked Mar 27 at 17:27
tres.14159tres.14159
4314
4314
You can not set a filename with slash characters: stackoverflow.com/questions/9847288/…
– tres.14159
Mar 27 at 17:31
the problem is your use of thedateformat using the/character. You said it yourself, the shell is seeing them as directory markers. Try one of the many other options available fromdate. You might be able to get the / escaped so the filename uses the character code (like putting a space in a filename), but that is often problematic.
– 0xSheepdog
Mar 27 at 17:32
add a comment |
You can not set a filename with slash characters: stackoverflow.com/questions/9847288/…
– tres.14159
Mar 27 at 17:31
the problem is your use of thedateformat using the/character. You said it yourself, the shell is seeing them as directory markers. Try one of the many other options available fromdate. You might be able to get the / escaped so the filename uses the character code (like putting a space in a filename), but that is often problematic.
– 0xSheepdog
Mar 27 at 17:32
You can not set a filename with slash characters: stackoverflow.com/questions/9847288/…
– tres.14159
Mar 27 at 17:31
You can not set a filename with slash characters: stackoverflow.com/questions/9847288/…
– tres.14159
Mar 27 at 17:31
the problem is your use of the
date format using the / character. You said it yourself, the shell is seeing them as directory markers. Try one of the many other options available from date. You might be able to get the / escaped so the filename uses the character code (like putting a space in a filename), but that is often problematic.– 0xSheepdog
Mar 27 at 17:32
the problem is your use of the
date format using the / character. You said it yourself, the shell is seeing them as directory markers. Try one of the many other options available from date. You might be able to get the / escaped so the filename uses the character code (like putting a space in a filename), but that is often problematic.– 0xSheepdog
Mar 27 at 17:32
add a comment |
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
You can't have / (byte 0x2F on ASCII-based systems) in a file name, period.
You can use characters that look like / like ∕ (U+2215 division slash) or ⁄ (U+2044 fraction slash though found in fewer of the charsets used in current locales), so you could do (provided that U+2215 character exists in the locale's charset, includes GBK, BIG5, UTF-8, GB18030):
cp file.csv "file.$(date +%D | sed 's|/|∕|g').csv"
Or with some shells (zsh, bash at least):
cp file.csv "file.$(date +%D | sed $'s|/|u2215|g').csv"
(here using sed instead of tr as some tr implementations including GNU tr still don't support multi-byte characters).
But you may run into problems like the file name being rendered differently in locales using a different charset from the one that was in use at the time you created the file (and of course the confusion of users when they see what looks like a slash in a file name).
My advice would be to use the standard non-ambiguous (for most people outside the US, 03/12/18 would be interpreted as the 3rd of December 2018 for instance) YYYY-mm-dd format instead (which also helps wrt sorting):
cp file.csv "file.$(date +%Y-%m-%d).csv"
Which with many date implementations you can shorten to:
cp file.csv "file.$(date +%F).csv"
answered Mar 27 at 17:33
Stéphane ChazelasStéphane Chazelas
313k57592948
2
Other characters similar to slash can also be cumbersome to type in terminal.
– gronostaj
Mar 28 at 8:49
@gronostaj, I've added a method to specify the character based on its Unicode codepoint.
– Stéphane Chazelas
Mar 28 at 16:37
add a comment |
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1 Answer
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oldest
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1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
You can't have / (byte 0x2F on ASCII-based systems) in a file name, period.
You can use characters that look like / like ∕ (U+2215 division slash) or ⁄ (U+2044 fraction slash though found in fewer of the charsets used in current locales), so you could do (provided that U+2215 character exists in the locale's charset, includes GBK, BIG5, UTF-8, GB18030):
cp file.csv "file.$(date +%D | sed 's|/|∕|g').csv"
Or with some shells (zsh, bash at least):
cp file.csv "file.$(date +%D | sed $'s|/|u2215|g').csv"
(here using sed instead of tr as some tr implementations including GNU tr still don't support multi-byte characters).
But you may run into problems like the file name being rendered differently in locales using a different charset from the one that was in use at the time you created the file (and of course the confusion of users when they see what looks like a slash in a file name).
My advice would be to use the standard non-ambiguous (for most people outside the US, 03/12/18 would be interpreted as the 3rd of December 2018 for instance) YYYY-mm-dd format instead (which also helps wrt sorting):
cp file.csv "file.$(date +%Y-%m-%d).csv"
Which with many date implementations you can shorten to:
cp file.csv "file.$(date +%F).csv"
answered Mar 27 at 17:33
Stéphane ChazelasStéphane Chazelas
313k57592948
2
Other characters similar to slash can also be cumbersome to type in terminal.
– gronostaj
Mar 28 at 8:49
@gronostaj, I've added a method to specify the character based on its Unicode codepoint.
– Stéphane Chazelas
Mar 28 at 16:37
add a comment |
You can't have / (byte 0x2F on ASCII-based systems) in a file name, period.
You can use characters that look like / like ∕ (U+2215 division slash) or ⁄ (U+2044 fraction slash though found in fewer of the charsets used in current locales), so you could do (provided that U+2215 character exists in the locale's charset, includes GBK, BIG5, UTF-8, GB18030):
cp file.csv "file.$(date +%D | sed 's|/|∕|g').csv"
Or with some shells (zsh, bash at least):
cp file.csv "file.$(date +%D | sed $'s|/|u2215|g').csv"
(here using sed instead of tr as some tr implementations including GNU tr still don't support multi-byte characters).
But you may run into problems like the file name being rendered differently in locales using a different charset from the one that was in use at the time you created the file (and of course the confusion of users when they see what looks like a slash in a file name).
My advice would be to use the standard non-ambiguous (for most people outside the US, 03/12/18 would be interpreted as the 3rd of December 2018 for instance) YYYY-mm-dd format instead (which also helps wrt sorting):
cp file.csv "file.$(date +%Y-%m-%d).csv"
Which with many date implementations you can shorten to:
cp file.csv "file.$(date +%F).csv"
answered Mar 27 at 17:33
Stéphane ChazelasStéphane Chazelas
313k57592948
2
Other characters similar to slash can also be cumbersome to type in terminal.
– gronostaj
Mar 28 at 8:49
@gronostaj, I've added a method to specify the character based on its Unicode codepoint.
– Stéphane Chazelas
Mar 28 at 16:37
add a comment |
You can't have / (byte 0x2F on ASCII-based systems) in a file name, period.
You can use characters that look like / like ∕ (U+2215 division slash) or ⁄ (U+2044 fraction slash though found in fewer of the charsets used in current locales), so you could do (provided that U+2215 character exists in the locale's charset, includes GBK, BIG5, UTF-8, GB18030):
cp file.csv "file.$(date +%D | sed 's|/|∕|g').csv"
Or with some shells (zsh, bash at least):
cp file.csv "file.$(date +%D | sed $'s|/|u2215|g').csv"
(here using sed instead of tr as some tr implementations including GNU tr still don't support multi-byte characters).
But you may run into problems like the file name being rendered differently in locales using a different charset from the one that was in use at the time you created the file (and of course the confusion of users when they see what looks like a slash in a file name).
My advice would be to use the standard non-ambiguous (for most people outside the US, 03/12/18 would be interpreted as the 3rd of December 2018 for instance) YYYY-mm-dd format instead (which also helps wrt sorting):
cp file.csv "file.$(date +%Y-%m-%d).csv"
Which with many date implementations you can shorten to:
cp file.csv "file.$(date +%F).csv"
answered Mar 27 at 17:33
Stéphane ChazelasStéphane Chazelas
313k57592948
You can't have / (byte 0x2F on ASCII-based systems) in a file name, period.
You can use characters that look like / like ∕ (U+2215 division slash) or ⁄ (U+2044 fraction slash though found in fewer of the charsets used in current locales), so you could do (provided that U+2215 character exists in the locale's charset, includes GBK, BIG5, UTF-8, GB18030):
cp file.csv "file.$(date +%D | sed 's|/|∕|g').csv"
Or with some shells (zsh, bash at least):
cp file.csv "file.$(date +%D | sed $'s|/|u2215|g').csv"
(here using sed instead of tr as some tr implementations including GNU tr still don't support multi-byte characters).
But you may run into problems like the file name being rendered differently in locales using a different charset from the one that was in use at the time you created the file (and of course the confusion of users when they see what looks like a slash in a file name).
My advice would be to use the standard non-ambiguous (for most people outside the US, 03/12/18 would be interpreted as the 3rd of December 2018 for instance) YYYY-mm-dd format instead (which also helps wrt sorting):
cp file.csv "file.$(date +%Y-%m-%d).csv"
Which with many date implementations you can shorten to:
cp file.csv "file.$(date +%F).csv"
answered Mar 27 at 17:33
Stéphane ChazelasStéphane Chazelas
313k57592948
edited Mar 28 at 16:52
answered Mar 27 at 17:33
Stéphane ChazelasStéphane Chazelas
313k57592948
answered Mar 27 at 17:33
Stéphane ChazelasStéphane Chazelas
313k57592948
answered Mar 27 at 17:33
Stéphane ChazelasStéphane Chazelas
313k57592948
313k57592948
2
Other characters similar to slash can also be cumbersome to type in terminal.
– gronostaj
Mar 28 at 8:49
@gronostaj, I've added a method to specify the character based on its Unicode codepoint.
– Stéphane Chazelas
Mar 28 at 16:37
add a comment |
2
Other characters similar to slash can also be cumbersome to type in terminal.
– gronostaj
Mar 28 at 8:49
@gronostaj, I've added a method to specify the character based on its Unicode codepoint.
– Stéphane Chazelas
Mar 28 at 16:37
2
2
Other characters similar to slash can also be cumbersome to type in terminal.
– gronostaj
Mar 28 at 8:49
Other characters similar to slash can also be cumbersome to type in terminal.
– gronostaj
Mar 28 at 8:49
@gronostaj, I've added a method to specify the character based on its Unicode codepoint.
– Stéphane Chazelas
Mar 28 at 16:37
@gronostaj, I've added a method to specify the character based on its Unicode codepoint.
– Stéphane Chazelas
Mar 28 at 16:37
add a comment |
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You can not set a filename with slash characters: stackoverflow.com/questions/9847288/…
– tres.14159
Mar 27 at 17:31
the problem is your use of the
dateformat using the/character. You said it yourself, the shell is seeing them as directory markers. Try one of the many other options available fromdate. You might be able to get the / escaped so the filename uses the character code (like putting a space in a filename), but that is often problematic.– 0xSheepdog
Mar 27 at 17:32