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This is my directory list on my NFS:

macbook-pro-andrey-k:Download Andrey$ ls
1289816143_PL_t1181913
1289816171_PL_t1183807
1290117075_BFD_DVD02(Drums)

I can't delete "1290117075_BFD_DVD02(Drums)" using

sudo rm -Rf 1290117075_BFD_DVD02(Drums)

because I get the error message

-bash: syntax error near unexpected token `('

How can I either rename the directory so that the error message would not show up, or delete the directory right away omitting the renaming procedure?

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The funniest thing is, you could have typed "sudo rm -Rf 129[tab]" and it would have been escaped. – Daniel Beck Nov 26 '10 at 21:11
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2 Answers

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As Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams says, you can surround the file name in quotes to have it treated as a literal. You can also escape characters with special meanings in the shell (space is probably the most common; you have just discovered brackets) with \, so your command would end up as:

sudo rm -Rf 1290117075_BFD_DVD02\(Drums\)

The escape character causes the character immediately after it (and no other) to be treated as a normal character.

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And if dir name contains spaces and &-sign (i.e. 123_Pics & Video) – user56990 Dec 10 '10 at 21:15
Just escape them all, one at a time. 123_Pics\ \&\ Video. The backslash-and-something is what's known as a digraph - two characters that are interpreted as one. See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digraphs_and_trigraphs for more detail. – Scott Dec 10 '10 at 22:16
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up vote 1 down vote 
sudo rm -Rf '1290117075_BFD_DVD02(Drums)'
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And if dir name is for example 123_Pics & Video ? – user56990 Dec 10 '10 at 21:14
@user56990: Single quotes will also work for that. – Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams Dec 10 '10 at 21:33
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