Git: how to specify file names containing octal notation on the command line

Question

For non-ASCII characters in file names, Git will output them in octal notation. For example:

> git ls-files
\"\\337.txt\"

If su

Answer 1

In Bash, you can use printf for this kind of purpose:

$ printf "\337.txt"
▒.txt

$ git rm `printf "\337.txt"`  # this would pass the awkward filename to git

The problem is, obviously, that the shell doesn't perform octal escaping, neither does git. But printf does.

---

Also, echo -e can do octal escaping:

$ echo -e '\0337.txt'
▒.txt

But that usage is a bit discouraged, you should prefer printf where you can.