How to delete weird directory `=..`

Question

Running this command 7z.exe e -o=.. example.zip created a directory =...

How can I delete it again?

Windows Explorer can not delete it: "An unexpected error is keeping you from deleting the folder. ... Error 0x80004005: Unspecified error"
Windows Explorer can not rename it either: "Could not find this item"
del =.. can not delete it: "Could Not Find =.."
rename =.. x does not help: "Access is denied."

Any other ideas?

Have a look at this related question, trying to remove a file with a long file name https://superuser.com/questions/45697/how-to-delete-a-file-in-windows-with-a-too-long-filename/467814?r=SearchResults&s=1|0.0000#467814 — Daniel K, Jun 26 '19 at 07:07

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Jun 26 '19 at 07:06

2

I found this solution which worked:

dir /x told me the "8.3 name" of =.. was _5259~1.
rmdir /s _5259~1 managed to delete the folder.

answered Jun 26 '19 at 07:06

Peter

121
4

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 21 '22 at 04:30

7zip works - no muss no fuss after trying everything else suggested - I had folders and subfolders and files created with chinese characters and spaces and dots - file not found but couldnt delete the folders.

From within 7zip the SHIFT+DEL works as it seems to cause problems if you just hit delete as it wants to send it to the windows recylcing bin which doesnt recognize the file and folder naming and same errors. or rename each to anything simple one by one

Try the main folder you want to delete thats tuck due to the subfolders and files first with SHIFT+DEL in 7Zip.

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Jun 26 '19 at 10:47

Windows generally disallows paths ending with dots; or rather it strips all trailing dots, to maintain compatibility with really old software.

You can however bypass the Win32 path canonicalization using the \\?\ prefix:

rmdir "\\?\C:\Users\Peter\=.."

The syntax requires a full absolute path (drive letter and all), because you're also bypassing the code that normally expands relative paths. Quotes also seem to be required, due to the way Cmd's built-ins interpret punctuation.

How to delete weird directory `=..`

3 Answers3