can ls file, but cannot read the content

[Ogi Prayogo]

hi,

I have a strange file behavour lately. I have log files that are can be listed with ls command. But when i tried to view the content of the log, it responds as if the file did not exist.

For example, the file name is dn.log.2008-10-22

#more dn.log.2008-10-22
dn.log.2008-10-22: No such file or directory

#ls dn.log.2008-10-22
dn.log.2008-10-22 not found

But, if i do:

#ls

the file name appears on the file listing.

Any ideas?

[Ogi Prayogo]

Oh, i should add an additional info. when I did the commands above, i logged in as 'root'.

Thanks in advance.

[Suraj K Sankari · Accepted solution]

Hi,

I think some extra cheracter will be there in your file, some times hidden space also added with the file name.

Suraj

[Dennis Handly]

>Suraj: I think some extra character will be there in your file

Right. List with "ls -b".

[Steven E. Protter]

Shalom,

Content could be encrypted.

Could be an invisible character in the name.

Try typing the beginning of the name and then escape K to get the rest of the name.

SEP

[Ogi Prayogo]

Excellent.

Thank you Suraj for hinting the invisible character. Also, thank you Steven for giving me idea on how to go about it. Sadly, i dont understand what 'escape K' is, pardon my ignorance. But what I did was, since i use bash, i used the auto-completion using the tab key.

Dennis, I used 'ls -b' but i have the same result as 'll' or 'ls -al'.

[Dennis Handly]

>I used 'ls -b' but i have the same result as 'll' or 'ls -al'.

Then you have spaces:
ll -b | vis -t

With "foo bar" you see "\s" for each space:
... mmm\sDD\sHH:MM\sfoo\sbar

[Ogi Prayogo]

Thank you, Dennis.

[Ogi Prayogo]

problem solved. there is a trailing space at the end of the name file.