how to create and delete arbitrary files: [terrence@igloo t]$ touch " " [terrence@igloo t]$ touch "\ " [terrence@igloo t]$ touch ^?^? ( Ctrl V + Ctrl_Shift ? ) [terrence@igloo t]$ ls -al|less total 24 -rw-r--r-- 1 terrence terrence 0 Aug 9 18:10 drwxr-xr-x 2 terrence terrence 4096 Aug 9 18:11 . drwxrwxrwt 33 root root 4096 Aug 9 18:10 .. -rw-r--r-- 1 terrence terrence 0 Aug 9 18:10 \ -rw-r--r-- 1 terrence terrence 0 Aug 9 18:11 ^?^? (END) [terrence@igloo t]$ for x in * ; do echo ===$x=== ; done === === ===\ === ====== [terrence@igloo t]$ rm " " "\\ " [terrence@igloo t]$ rm "^?^?" ( Ctrl V + Ctrl_Shift ? ) [terrence@igloo t]$ ls |