Escape a mm/dd/YY backup date in a file name





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6















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







share|improve this question

























  • 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




















6















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







share|improve this question

























  • 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
















6












6








6








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







share|improve this question
















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






share|improve this question















share|improve this question













share|improve this question




share|improve this question








edited Mar 28 at 9:27









Stéphane Chazelas

313k57592948




313k57592948










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 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





















  • 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



















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












1 Answer
1






active

oldest

votes


















20














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"





share|improve this answer





















  • 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












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1 Answer
1






active

oldest

votes








1 Answer
1






active

oldest

votes









active

oldest

votes






active

oldest

votes









20














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"





share|improve this answer





















  • 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
















20














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"





share|improve this answer





















  • 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














20












20








20







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"





share|improve this answer















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"






share|improve this answer














share|improve this answer



share|improve this answer








edited Mar 28 at 16:52

























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














  • 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


















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