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I am trying to rename a file with a name that contains the "/" character. Example: 

mv product.dat product/2012.dat

Is this possible in Unix?

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Such a file can't exist (/ separates directories and files in paths), so you can't. – vonbrand Jan 23 at 19:14

3 Answers

up vote 2 down vote

A / isn't allowed as a character in a file or directory name under Unix. The / is understood as punctuation between directory levels in a complete path. What you can do is create a directory called product, then move your file into it (which could be what you actually intended anyway.)

mkdir product
mv product.dat product/2012.dat
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I don't know any Unix with a filesystem that supports a / character in a filename. / is used to separate path entries, so it cannot be used in a filename.

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You can mount FAT filesystems. OK, you still can't use /, but that's not because of the filesystem. – Isaac Rabinovitch Nov 29 '12 at 21:28
1  
@Isaac: I'm afraid to disagree. FAT doesn't support / in filenames regardless of what OS is used to mount it. In particular, As soon as it supported subdirectories, MS-DOS internally accepted / as a path separator as a synonymous of the documented ``. – jlliagre Nov 30 '12 at 7:04
@jlliagre Don't be afraid to disagree, especially when you're right. – Isaac Rabinovitch Nov 30 '12 at 18:02
up vote 2 down vote

Are you saying you want to remove the '/' or add it? To remove it (however the heck it got there), use single quotes.

If you are trying to add it, then no, you cannot and should not.

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