Allowed characters in filename

special-characters filenames
python dude picture python dude · Jan 27, 2011 · Viewed 188.3k times · Source

Where can I find a list of allowed characters in filenames, depending on the operating system? (e.g. on Linux, the character : is allowed in filenames, but not on Windows)

Answer

paxdiablo picture paxdiablo · Jan 27, 2011

You should start with the Wikipedia Filename page. It has a decent-sized table (Comparison of filename limitations), listing the reserved characters for quite a lot of file systems.

It also has a plethora of other information about each file system, including reserved file names such as CON under MS-DOS. I mention that only because I was bitten by that once when I shortened an include file from const.h to con.h and spent half an hour figuring out why the compiler hung.

Turns out DOS ignored extensions for devices so that con.h was exactly the same as con, the input console (meaning, of course, the compiler was waiting for me to type in the header file before it would continue).

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