Problems with ls

[Jeff Picton]

Hi

I have a listing of files in a directory. When I use ls to list the files, the list appears as output.

However, when I try to ls an INDIVIDUAL file the file is not recognised. This applies to the cat , file commands also.

Can anyone help ?

Cheers

Jeff

[Michael Schulte zur Sur]

Hi,

when you mean not found, try ls -lb to see any invisable characters in the name.

Michael

[Jeff Picton]

Hi

When I do that I get the following :-

root@telesto[dublin_out1] ls -lb SNNL54020700_20040202_072325
SNNL54020700_20040202_072325 not found

[Michael Schulte zur Sur]

Hi,

just do a ls -lb without files as parameter

Michael

[Jeff Picton]

Hi

Yes as I say I can do an ls -lb in the directory to get a list of files but cannot do an ls -lb on an individual file.

Jeff

[Darren Prior]

Hi Jeff,

What happens when you use ls -lb on the dir? does it show your SNNLwhatever filename with any extra characters?

Does ls -lb *SNNL54020700_20040202_072325* work?

regards,

Darren.

[T G Manikandan]

$which ls

[Jeff Picton]

Hi Darren

As you see the reply to your question is yes - as below :-

ls -lb *SNNL54020700_20040202_072325*
-rw-r--r-- 1 root sys 115 Feb 2 07:23 SNNL54020700_20040202_072325

Jeff

[Darren Prior]

That's good news - it suggests there is any extra character (or characters) at the start and/or end of the filename. Repeat the test but leave off one of the asterisks to determine which end of the filename has the problem.

regards,

Darren.

[John Strang]

Hi Jeff,

It sounds to me as if your files have some hidden chartacters included in the filenames.

Try doing something like
ls -l S* to see if the files are listed; then
ls -l SN*
ls -l SNN*
etc etc to try to establish where the hidden characters are.

Hope this helps you in some way,

John

[Hoefnix · Accepted solution]

Try running next ls command to see if something is behind the name of the file (like a space)
ls | awk -Feol '{ printf "|%s|\n",$1 }'
output will be like:
|scripts|
|t|
|tmp |

The tmp file has space behind the filename.
Hopes this helps you to figure out what the problem is.

Regards,
Peter

[Jeff Picton]

Hi

I get the following :-

root@telesto[dublin_out1] ls | awk -Feol '{ printf "|%s|\n",$1 }' | more
|SIGR21010300_20040201_031111 |
|SIGR21010300_20040201_031139 |
|SIGR21010300_20040201_034926 |
|SIGR21010900_20040201_091011 |
|SIGR21010900_20040201_091100 |
|SIGR21010900_20040201_093457 |
|SIGR21011500_20040201_151004 |
|SIGR21011500_20040201_151129 |
|SIGR21011500_20040201_152144 |
|SIGR21012100_20040201_211001 |
|SIGR21012100_20040201_211138 |
|SIGR21012100_20040201_211836 |
|SIGR21012100_20040201_212920 |
|SIGR21020300_20040202_031010 |
|SIGR21020300_20040202_033906 |
|SIGR21020900_20040202_091051 |

[Michael Schulte zur Sur]

You can see any extra character with

ls *SNNL54020700_20040202_072325* | od -x

Michael

[Hoefnix]

Jeff,

It looks like you have 1 or multiple spaces(forum removes the multiples) behind each filename.

use the * behind the filename in your cat command to view the file (or reuse the awk from the ls)

Regards,

Peter

[Jeff Picton]

Hi

Thanks for your replies.

We have discovered multiple white spaces after the file name.

Jeff

[Clay Jordan]

This is late for the party but

To see a file:
ls | cat -vet (shows non-printing characters, tabs and form-feeds visibly, with a $ as the end of line marker.)

To work with a file:

ls -i ( to get the inum ) and then
find -inum xxx -exec somecommand {} \;