an undeleteable file

[james438]

http://www.animeviews.com/.hcc.thumbs/.hcc.\sdcc.jpg+t

I hope i have the address right, but how would you delete a file with a name like this?

I get error messages like:

550 Prohibited file name: .hcc.\sdcc.jpg+t : /.hcc.thumbs/.hcc.\sdcc.jpg+t

or

22:19:54   Delete .hcc.\sdcc.jpg+t
On folder /.hcc.thumbs 
Error .hcc.\sdcc.jpg+t (No such file or directory)

I called up my web host an he referred it to his supervisor who referred it to his supervisor who apparently was able to put it into a folder and manipulate it slightly, but it is still there. No biggie. It doesn't even do anything.

[Twey]

That looks like FTP to me. From a shell, you can escape the filename:

rm .hcc.\\sdcc.jpg+t

or use a wildcard:

rm .hcc.*

It shouldn't present a problem. That is, of course, if you're running a UNIX-based host: it looks as if you are from the paths, but some Windows FTP servers imitate a UNIX filesystem. Windows filesystems have restrictions on what characters may exist in filenames; I don't believe that file can exist on a Windows system.

[james438]

I use two different ftp programs. One is fireftp and the other is a little known program that is out there called cjgExplorerPro-3.3.

I am not sure what a shell is. I tried changing the permissions on the file, but that didn't work as the filename that is there is an unpermitted filename and should not exist in the first place

Because of this it can not be renamed, deleted, and the permissions can't be changed on the file either, but I don't know much about permissions anyway.

I had a similar named file that I could access on Firefox where Firefox would not change the address for it too much. It was http://www.animeviews.com/c:\data\newt.bmp

not that it matters. The 'newt' file has already been deleted, but I don't know how. I still have the sdcc file to deal with though. Interesting problem eh? I can probably duplicate the problem again real easy, but I would rather not try it. I think I used a file upload program and renamed the file to something weird like you see above. I may have added quotes as well.

[james438]

I am using a unix based host and have recently started a little work on manipulating flat files. I can list them and edit files now, but I am still unable to delete the file. Any ideas?

I recently tried

<?php
$file = ".hcc.thumbs";
if (!rmdir($file))
  {
  echo ("Error deleting $file");
  }
else
  {
  echo ("Deleted $file");
  }
?>

to remove the directory since the file supposedly doesn't exist. I think that what is really happening is that the browsers and programs that I know of do not recognize the \ character in a filename and so rewrite the filename that I am type into the browser's address bar. I wonder if even PHP does the same thing.

[djr33]

Make a PHP script in that directory.
<?php unlink('filename.extension'); ?>

And it's gone!

[james438]

lets try something simpler. I can create files into the .hcc.thumbs directory, but I am unable to access them, but I can list them for some odd reason. I tried accessing the file from another folder like so:

<?php unlink('../.hcc.thumbs/me.php'); ?>

me.php being a test file that I put into the .hcc.thumbs folder. Using cjg-explorerpro-3.3 I was able to delete the me.php file, but not the .hcc.\sdcc.jpg+t file.

If you want the supposed url to the file is http://www.animeviews.com/hcc.thumbs/.hcc.\sdcc.jpg+t

The error file I get is

Warning: unlink(../.hcc.thumbs/me.php) [function.unlink]: No such file or directory in /home/content/a/n/i/animeviews/html/test.php5 on line 1

No worries. It is a complicated problem. I called my host at godaddy and he was unable to delete it so he called his supervisor who was unable to delete it so he called his supervisor who was also unable to delete it so he called technical support and apparently they moved it into its own folder instead of deleting it.

[Twey]

?

twey@peordh /tmp/f/.hcc.thumbs $ ls -a
.  ..
twey@peordh /tmp/f/.hcc.thumbs $ touch .hcc.\\sdcc.jpg+t
twey@peordh /tmp/f/.hcc.thumbs $ ls -a
.  ..  .hcc.\sdcc.jpg+t
twey@peordh /tmp/f/.hcc.thumbs $ rm .hcc.\\sdcc.jpg+t
twey@peordh /tmp/f/.hcc.thumbs $ ls -a
.  ..

[james438]

I assume you are asking a question with the question mark and the following section was you demonstrating how to delete the file from another directory. I take it ls lists the files in a directory or the stats of a particular file. I have no idea what the -a is. list all of the files? dunno. twey@peorh, dunno what that is either. Nor do I know who the question is directed at if it even is a question.

near as I can tell you are referrencing http://us3.php.net/manual/en/function.shell-exec.php That area of PHP is well beyond my scope of understanding at present.

please elaborate or someone please explain what he just said. If you need more info from me let me know too and I'll see what I can do.

[Twey]

I was merely demonstrating how simple it is to remove such a file, at least on a *nix host. twey@peordh /tmp/f/.hcc.thumbs $ is my prompt. ls -a lists all files; touch creates a file if one doesn't already exist; rm deletes a file. I had no issues deleting that file, and your host shouldn't have either. I suggest finding another host, as your current is evidently incompetent.

[james438]

That could be. I supposed the old adage holds true here that you get what you pay for since I pay for next to nothing for their services. PHP has many different areas like image manipulation, flat file manipulation, regular expressions and about a hundred different areas of which there are only few that I am familiar with. This is one that may be simple, but is completely foreign to me at present and is not one I plan on becoming an expert in, but I will stick with it till I can figure out how to get rid of this file.