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why we can not use any special character (?, <..) in windows File name ?

Kapil
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  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filename – zengr Oct 28 '10 at 05:35
  • Because they have special meanings like input/output redirection, drive letter delimiter, 32k Unicode name support etc – Remus Rusanu Oct 28 '10 at 05:36
  • similar [What characters are forbidden in Windows and Linux directory names?](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1976007/what-characters-are-forbidden-in-windows-and-linux-directory-names) – Mila Nautikus Jan 03 '22 at 20:11

3 Answers3

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Fundamental rules for for Universal Naming Convention (UNC),which enable applications to create and process valid names for files and directories, regardless of the file system:

Following reserved characters:

  • < (less than)
  • > (greater than)
  • : (colon)
  • " (double quote)
  • / (forward slash)
  • \ (backslash)
  • | (vertical bar or pipe)
  • ? (question mark)
  • * (asterisk)

Use any character in the current code page for a name, including Unicode characters and characters in the extended character set (128–255),

George
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Sudantha
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Because they have special meanings in filesystem:

C:*.? - get all files with single letter extensions from C drive

: \ * ? - all have special meanings

Riho
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0

Since some character are Reserved characters in some operating system,say ? is used as wildcard,/ as path name component separator.

Ads
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