# File.unlink(nonwestern\_filename) ---\> Error on Windows **URL:** \ **Category:** Ruby\ **Created:** [July 5, 2007, 3:04pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/file-unlink-nonwestern-filename-error-on-windows/108634 "2007-07-05T15:04:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![unknown](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/u/4bbf92/32.png) [@unknown](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/unknown)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2007, 3:04pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/file-unlink-nonwestern-filename-error-on-windows/108634/1 "2007-07-05T15:04:16Z")
Hi! I use Ruby on Windows, and tried to remove all files in a directory with the code given below. But if the directory contains files with filenames having non-western characters the operation fails. I first encountered this problem when using FileUtils.rm\_r, and that method also fails (for the same reason I guess). This makes FileUtils quite useless in some situations. We have for example Subversion projects that contain files with Japanese characters (for testing that our product works with such characters), and I also tried with Arabic characters (stored in Unicode in NTFS in both cases). Is it possible to get Ruby to work with filenames containing non-western characters at all on Windows? If so, what should I do? /Johan H. * * * Dir.chdir “nonwestern-files” for entry in Dir.entries(".") next if entry == “.” next if entry == “…” n = File.unlink(entry) puts “failed to delete #{entry}” if n == 0 end ---
**Author:** ![unknown](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/u/4bbf92/32.png) [@unknown](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/unknown)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2007, 4:13pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/file-unlink-nonwestern-filename-error-on-windows/108634/2 "2007-07-05T16:13:27Z")
On Jul 5, 2007, at 8:00 AM, removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid wrote: > ## our product works with such characters), and I also tried with Arabic for entry in Dir.entries(".") next if entry == “.” next if entry == “…” n = File.unlink(entry) puts “failed to delete #{entry}” if n == 0 end First make sure you set the KCODE Try using the chars class from ActiveSupport (yes it is a gem that is part of Rails but it provides a great deal of utf-8 processing) ---
**Author:** ![unknown](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/u/4bbf92/32.png) [@unknown](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/unknown)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2007, 6:32pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/file-unlink-nonwestern-filename-error-on-windows/108634/3 "2007-07-05T18:32:47Z")
On 7/5/07, John J. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > On Jul 5, 2007, at 8:00 AM, removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid wrote: > > > I use Ruby on Windows, and tried to remove all files in a directory > > with the code given below. But if the directory contains files with > > filenames having non-western characters the operation fails. > > First make sure you set the KCODE Using KCODE does not change anything. I have tried: $ ruby -Ke rm-files.rb $ ruby -Ks rm-files.rb $ ruby -Ku rm-files.rb $ ruby -Ka rm-files.rb $ ruby -Kn rm-files.rb The problematic files are stored with a name that is a 16-bit character string in NTFS (what I called Unicode in my earlier mail, perhaps one should call it “almost UTF-16” or UCS-2, I don’t know the finer details). Anyway, I don’t think setting KCODE solves my problem. > Try using the chars class from ActiveSupport (yes it is a gem that is > part of Rails but it provides a great deal of utf-8 processing) See above. I don’t think NTFS stores Unicode filenames in UTF-8. My assumption when starting to look at this problem was: that a filename that I got from one function (Dir.entries) would be directly usable in another function (File.unlink). That was quite naive I realize 🙂 But it is still a real problem. As it is now, FileUtils.rm\_r does not work on an arbitrary file-tree. As soon as it contains a file with “wrong” filename it fails. Maybe this is just a consequence of the way Ruby is ported to Windows. /Johan H. ---
**Author:** ![unknown](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/u/4bbf92/32.png) [@unknown](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/unknown)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2007, 7:34pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/file-unlink-nonwestern-filename-error-on-windows/108634/4 "2007-07-05T19:34:53Z")
On 7/5/07, removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > > > > character string in NTFS (what I called Unicode in my earlier mail, > filename that I got from one function (Dir.entries) would be directly > I’m not sure but maybe win32-utils (win32-file perhaps?) might have a way > to save the day. [http://rubyforge.org/projects/win32utils/](http://rubyforge.org/projects/win32utils/) ---
**Author:** ![unknown](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/u/4bbf92/32.png) [@unknown](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/unknown)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2007, 5:58pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/file-unlink-nonwestern-filename-error-on-windows/108634/5 "2007-07-06T17:58:08Z")
Hi, On 05/07/07, removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > The problematic files are stored with a name that is a 16-bit > character string in NTFS (what I called Unicode in my earlier mail, > perhaps one should call it “almost UTF-16” or UCS-2, I don’t know the > finer details). Anyway, I don’t think setting KCODE solves my problem. I haven’t used Windows for a long while, but unless something has changed in the newest releases, Ruby uses the Windows legacy code page for interacting with the system, which is by default Windows-1252 on English systems, Shift\_JIS on Japanese systems, etc. Internally, Windows is all Unicode, as is NTFS (I think it’s UTF-16, but that’s not really important for this discussion), but applications using legacy code pages can’t communicate strings outside that code page to the OS. That means that if you set the legacy code page to Shift\_JIS, you can read and write Japanese file names, but not Arabic ones. If you set it to Windows-1252, you can use acute accents, but can’t touch Japanese files. I am led to believe that there is a UTF-8 code page in Windows, and it is possible to set the legacy code page on an application-by-application basis, at least on XP (though you might need a separate Power Toy or similar to do it). If you can get that to work, it might be possible to manipulate files via the UTF-8 representation of their name. I’ve never seen it done, though, so this is entirely hypothetical. Paul. ---
**Author:** ![unknown](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/u/4bbf92/32.png) [@unknown](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/unknown)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2007, 3:52am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/file-unlink-nonwestern-filename-error-on-windows/108634/6 "2007-07-06T03:52:56Z")
On Jul 5, 2007, at 11:32 AM, removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid wrote: > perhaps one should call it “almost UTF-16” or UCS-2, I don’t know the > finer details). Anyway, I don’t think setting KCODE solves my problem. Translation from utf-16 and utf-8 shouldn’t be a problem. Check out [unicode.org](http://unicode.org) for more on this than you really want to, or there is a nice blog article at joelonsoftware > But it is still a real problem. As it is now, FileUtils.rm\_r does not > work on an arbitrary file-tree. As soon as it contains a file with > “wrong” filename it fails. Maybe this is just a consequence of the way > Ruby is ported to Windows. > > /Johan H. Some file utilities are specifically non-windows. That may be part of the problem you are having. Many of those file utilities out there are Ruby versions of utilities found on \*nix systems. Sorry about that. Much of that is documented in the pickaxe book (v.2) in the second half of the book. (sorry again, I’m not saying RTFM, just that it is noted there.) The win32utils will hopefully do the job. Let us know what works! This kind of problem is common for lots of people.