Can the folder have no name in Ubuntu ?

Question

I have a folder in my system with no name in it. It is empty. But that folder has files inside it.

Just out of curiosity, I tried to create another folder and try to rename it by not giving any name. But I could not do it.

Any idea, how can it be achieved?

On the same topic, how to access that folder in the shell?

If you do ls -l in the parent directory, what is the output? — Braiam, Aug 9, 2013 at 12:53
I am sorry, in the height of excitement, I renamed it to "/". I was trying to use the escape sequence "\ " ( Read it as \<space> ) — www.sapnaedu.in, Aug 9, 2013 at 12:55
I could create a folder called " " (space) just typing mkdir " ". It had name, just that it was named " " — Braiam, Aug 9, 2013 at 12:56
@Braiam, Vow, Thanks, Any idea, how do we access in the terminal? — www.sapnaedu.in, Aug 9, 2013 at 12:57

Radu Rădeanu · Accepted Answer · 2013-08-09 13:17:51Z

3

Accourding with these Rules For Naming File And Directory Names, no, it can't have no name, but can be named with one or more space/blank characters:

enter image description here

From the above picture you can deduce that you can access a directory having only a space in the name with:

cd ' '

answered Aug 9, 2013 at 12:58

Radu Rădeanu

170k49 gold badges328 silver badges402 bronze badges

For example mkdir '' returns mkdir: cannot create directory ‘’: No such file or directory or mkdir -p some//path just create some/path.
– Braiam
Aug 9, 2013 at 13:00
@Braiam Yes, but for example mkdir ' ' is creating a ' ' directory :/
– Radu Rădeanu
Aug 9, 2013 at 13:30
Sorry, I was under the perception you have read my other comment
– Braiam
Aug 9, 2013 at 13:34

Add a comment |

1 Answer 1