Rm ABC?

[utzoo!decvax!harpo!seismo!hao!cires!nbires!ut-ngp!san]

Seeing as we had a similar problem using our 4.1BSD system, I thought
I'd throw in my two cents worth...  some systems allowed the creation
of a file with characters having the most-significant bit turned on
(ala 0200). Unfortunately, but logically (?) so, it seems that all
programs that deal with directories make SURE to turn off that MSB, so
(for example) you can get ``rm -i'' to print a vague resemblence of the
files name, but upon approving removal of it, ``rm'' will complain
strenously to the tune of ``file non-existent'', or some such error.

I have been unfortunate enough to come across this problem on both a
4.1BSD system and a V7M system, The fix for all of this has probably
been published, so I hesitate to take up more space, but just in
case........

On 4.1BSD there is a one or two line fix in the kernel to ``chr &=
0177'' when creating a file. As far as V7M, I haven't tried, though I
would imagine it would be similar. The quick/dirty solution is to
change/create a program to run through the named directory, accepting a
filename WITH the MSB on, and attempt to remove it Fortunately the
system will accept those filenames as arguments to ``unlink''.

Note that I had no luck trying to match the characters with
meta-characters, no one knows/cares about the MSB on a filenames
characters.

If anyone wants the fix to a 4.1BSD kernel, I'll be happy to send them
a copy and/or where it goes

		Steve Sanderson
		...!nbires!ut-ngp!san
		san at utexas-11

P.s. this assumes that you DON'T want MSB's to be able to be turned on.