Mark Stapleton <stapleto AT berbee DOT com> wrote:

>> For example: my*file.txt
>
>Well, there's part of the problem there. '*' is an invalid character for
>a filename in any UNIX system I've ever heard of. Such filenames appear
>from time to time when using misconfigured moves and copies.

'*' is a perfectly valid (though troublesome) character for filenames
on Unix systems.  (The only character that is absolutely invalid for
a filename - as opposed to a pathname - would be the slash "/" character.)
Yes, they can appear as unintended results of bad mv and cp command
invocations, but they are good filenames - they just require some quoting.

 - seb