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Escape a mm/dd/YY backup date in a file name

6

I have been trying to:

cp file.csv file.$(date +%D).csv

But it fails because the filenames is: file.03/27/19.csv with the slash of separate directories.

And I have been trying again to:

cp file.csv file.$(printf "%q" $(date +%D)).csv

But it still fails.

shell filenames date escape-characters slash

share|improve this question

edited yesterday

Stéphane Chazelas

312k57589946

asked 2 days ago

tres.14159tres.14159

4314

• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  You can not set a filename with slash characters: stackoverflow.com/questions/9847288/…
  
  – tres.14159
  2 days ago
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  the problem is your use of the date format using the / character. You said it yourself, the shell is seeing them as directory markers. Try one of the many other options available from date. You might be able to get the / escaped so the filename uses the character code (like putting a space in a filename), but that is often problematic.
  
  – 0xSheepdog
  2 days ago
  
  

  
  
  
  

add a comment | 

6

I have been trying to:

cp file.csv file.$(date +%D).csv

But it fails because the filenames is: file.03/27/19.csv with the slash of separate directories.

And I have been trying again to:

cp file.csv file.$(printf "%q" $(date +%D)).csv

But it still fails.

shell filenames date escape-characters slash

share|improve this question

edited yesterday

Stéphane Chazelas

312k57589946

asked 2 days ago

tres.14159tres.14159

4314

• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  You can not set a filename with slash characters: stackoverflow.com/questions/9847288/…
  
  – tres.14159
  2 days ago
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  the problem is your use of the date format using the / character. You said it yourself, the shell is seeing them as directory markers. Try one of the many other options available from date. You might be able to get the / escaped so the filename uses the character code (like putting a space in a filename), but that is often problematic.
  
  – 0xSheepdog
  2 days ago
  
  

  
  
  
  

add a comment | 

I have been trying to:

cp file.csv file.$(date +%D).csv

But it fails because the filenames is: file.03/27/19.csv with the slash of separate directories.

And I have been trying again to:

cp file.csv file.$(printf "%q" $(date +%D)).csv

But it still fails.

shell filenames date escape-characters slash

share|improve this question

edited yesterday

Stéphane Chazelas

312k57589946

asked 2 days ago

tres.14159tres.14159

4314

cp file.csv file.$(date +%D).csv

cp file.csv file.$(printf "%q" $(date +%D)).csv

share|improve this question

edited yesterday

Stéphane Chazelas

312k57589946

asked 2 days ago

tres.14159tres.14159

4314

share|improve this question

edited yesterday

Stéphane Chazelas

312k57589946

asked 2 days ago

tres.14159tres.14159

4314

edited yesterday

Stéphane Chazelas

312k57589946

edited yesterday

Stéphane Chazelas

312k57589946

asked 2 days ago

tres.14159tres.14159

4314

asked 2 days ago

tres.14159tres.14159

4314

1 Answer
1

active

oldest

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20

You can't have / (byte 0x2F on ASCII-based systems) in a file name, period.

You can use characters that look like / like ∕ (U+2215 division slash) or ⁄ (U+2044 fraction slash though found in fewer of the charsets used in current locales), so you could do (provided that U+2215 character exists in the locale's charset, includes GBK, BIG5, UTF-8, GB18030):

cp file.csv "file.$(date +%D | sed 's|/|∕|g').csv"

Or with some shells (zsh, bash at least):

cp file.csv "file.$(date +%D | sed $'s|/|u2215|g').csv"

(here using sed instead of tr as some tr implementations including GNU tr still don't support multi-byte characters).

But you may run into problems like the file name being rendered differently in locales using a different charset from the one that was in use at the time you created the file (and of course the confusion of users when they see what looks like a slash in a file name).

My advice would be to use the standard non-ambiguous (for most people outside the US, 03/12/18 would be interpreted as the 3^rd of December 2018 for instance) YYYY-mm-dd format instead (which also helps wrt sorting):

cp file.csv "file.$(date +%Y-%m-%d).csv"

Which with many date implementations you can shorten to:

cp file.csv "file.$(date +%F).csv"

share|improve this answer

edited yesterday

answered 2 days ago

Stéphane ChazelasStéphane Chazelas

312k57589946

• 
  
  
  

  
  2
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  Other characters similar to slash can also be cumbersome to type in terminal.
  
  – gronostaj
  yesterday
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  @gronostaj, I've added a method to specify the character based on its Unicode codepoint.
  
  – Stéphane Chazelas
  yesterday
  

  
  
  
  

add a comment | 

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20

You can't have / (byte 0x2F on ASCII-based systems) in a file name, period.

You can use characters that look like / like ∕ (U+2215 division slash) or ⁄ (U+2044 fraction slash though found in fewer of the charsets used in current locales), so you could do (provided that U+2215 character exists in the locale's charset, includes GBK, BIG5, UTF-8, GB18030):

cp file.csv "file.$(date +%D | sed 's|/|∕|g').csv"

Or with some shells (zsh, bash at least):

cp file.csv "file.$(date +%D | sed $'s|/|u2215|g').csv"

(here using sed instead of tr as some tr implementations including GNU tr still don't support multi-byte characters).

But you may run into problems like the file name being rendered differently in locales using a different charset from the one that was in use at the time you created the file (and of course the confusion of users when they see what looks like a slash in a file name).

My advice would be to use the standard non-ambiguous (for most people outside the US, 03/12/18 would be interpreted as the 3^rd of December 2018 for instance) YYYY-mm-dd format instead (which also helps wrt sorting):

cp file.csv "file.$(date +%Y-%m-%d).csv"

Which with many date implementations you can shorten to:

cp file.csv "file.$(date +%F).csv"

share|improve this answer

edited yesterday

answered 2 days ago

Stéphane ChazelasStéphane Chazelas

312k57589946

• 
  
  
  

  
  2
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  Other characters similar to slash can also be cumbersome to type in terminal.
  
  – gronostaj
  yesterday
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  @gronostaj, I've added a method to specify the character based on its Unicode codepoint.
  
  – Stéphane Chazelas
  yesterday
  

  
  
  
  

add a comment | 

20

You can't have / (byte 0x2F on ASCII-based systems) in a file name, period.

You can use characters that look like / like ∕ (U+2215 division slash) or ⁄ (U+2044 fraction slash though found in fewer of the charsets used in current locales), so you could do (provided that U+2215 character exists in the locale's charset, includes GBK, BIG5, UTF-8, GB18030):

cp file.csv "file.$(date +%D | sed 's|/|∕|g').csv"

Or with some shells (zsh, bash at least):

cp file.csv "file.$(date +%D | sed $'s|/|u2215|g').csv"

(here using sed instead of tr as some tr implementations including GNU tr still don't support multi-byte characters).

But you may run into problems like the file name being rendered differently in locales using a different charset from the one that was in use at the time you created the file (and of course the confusion of users when they see what looks like a slash in a file name).

My advice would be to use the standard non-ambiguous (for most people outside the US, 03/12/18 would be interpreted as the 3^rd of December 2018 for instance) YYYY-mm-dd format instead (which also helps wrt sorting):

cp file.csv "file.$(date +%Y-%m-%d).csv"

Which with many date implementations you can shorten to:

cp file.csv "file.$(date +%F).csv"

share|improve this answer

edited yesterday

answered 2 days ago

Stéphane ChazelasStéphane Chazelas

312k57589946

• 
  
  
  

  
  2
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  Other characters similar to slash can also be cumbersome to type in terminal.
  
  – gronostaj
  yesterday
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  @gronostaj, I've added a method to specify the character based on its Unicode codepoint.
  
  – Stéphane Chazelas
  yesterday
  

  
  
  
  

add a comment | 

You can't have / (byte 0x2F on ASCII-based systems) in a file name, period.

You can use characters that look like / like ∕ (U+2215 division slash) or ⁄ (U+2044 fraction slash though found in fewer of the charsets used in current locales), so you could do (provided that U+2215 character exists in the locale's charset, includes GBK, BIG5, UTF-8, GB18030):

cp file.csv "file.$(date +%D | sed 's|/|∕|g').csv"

Or with some shells (zsh, bash at least):

cp file.csv "file.$(date +%D | sed $'s|/|u2215|g').csv"

(here using sed instead of tr as some tr implementations including GNU tr still don't support multi-byte characters).

But you may run into problems like the file name being rendered differently in locales using a different charset from the one that was in use at the time you created the file (and of course the confusion of users when they see what looks like a slash in a file name).

My advice would be to use the standard non-ambiguous (for most people outside the US, 03/12/18 would be interpreted as the 3^rd of December 2018 for instance) YYYY-mm-dd format instead (which also helps wrt sorting):

cp file.csv "file.$(date +%Y-%m-%d).csv"

Which with many date implementations you can shorten to:

cp file.csv "file.$(date +%F).csv"

share|improve this answer

edited yesterday

answered 2 days ago

Stéphane ChazelasStéphane Chazelas

312k57589946

cp file.csv "file.$(date +%D | sed 's|/|∕|g').csv"

cp file.csv "file.$(date +%D | sed $'s|/|u2215|g').csv"

cp file.csv "file.$(date +%Y-%m-%d).csv"

cp file.csv "file.$(date +%F).csv"

share|improve this answer

edited yesterday

answered 2 days ago

Stéphane ChazelasStéphane Chazelas

312k57589946

answered 2 days ago

Stéphane ChazelasStéphane Chazelas

312k57589946

answered 2 days ago

Stéphane ChazelasStéphane Chazelas

312k57589946