this is !(Dot files always first in directory?)

[Kathi Loughlin]

all this about . and ..  and  the bizarre characters that can come 
ahead triggers a problem I failed to solve today. I had some
EXTREMELY INTERESTING file names created by a cpio -icCB that went
"out of phase". (i problably know the cause of that!).  These were
SO BAD though.. that my usual cheap tricks to find files with bizarre
characters in the name didnt work...  I tried ls'ing into a file 
and editing it to make a rm script... but it (ls) couldn't even process
it,  got alot of graphic trash and "not found" messages. A "file"
of my tmpfile identified it as "executable".... which was no big
surprise. I was thinking of using rm -i [~a-z]*, but  I knew it would 
just put my terminal into graphics again IF rm could  handle processing 
the data.   I guess it expects names inside  the ascii range or some
silly limitation like that.. expecitng them to be created from the 
keyboard.. how unimaginative.

Finally I did the cheap cowardly thing.... moved the entire
directory elsewhere and blew the monster into the void with rm -rf. 
Hey, it was easier to reinstall at that point... and I wanted to get 
even! I had put my terminal in unrecoverable graphics mode 3 times 
and was tired of it.   Yes, it felt great, and I even snickered a 
little as I did it. Possibly this was the only real option at this 
point.  However, next time it might be my c homework after 5 hours 
of intense work and murphy's law states that if this happens, it will 
happen at 2 am, just before the last deadline of the program... and 
i will finally have gotten it working... What else might work?
-- 
"If once to the dark side  | Kathi Loughlin @ uunet!ccicpg!capone!kathi
you turn, forever will it  | CCI Computers    (714) 458-7282
dominate your destiny"     | 9801 Muirlands Blvd. Irvine, Ca. 92718