# MBox Filename Restrictions

Here's the problem: I want to be able to easily and clearly mark directory names for audio filesets on my regular Windows working drives to indicate when they have been GAT-tagged.

It would be suave to use a neato artistic glyph like ☸, but anything beyond the bounds of the plain old [ASCII code chart](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASCII#Code_chart) tends to cause unexpected problems with older Windows apps (like Robert Hoffman's indispensible package, [Trader's Little Helper](http://tlh.easytree.org/), which relies on ancient code to create the functional GUI).

And since I'm currently sharing these filesets over to a NAS running a weirdo derivation of Linux, I need to avoid using characters that might inadvertently cause problems there too.

So the next two lists are a quick reminder to me of the reserved characters that absolutely COULDN'T work for my desired purpose.

## Linux Reserved Characters

^ Glyph ^ Glyph Name ^
| /     | (forward slash) |
| '\0'  | (NUL) |

## Windows Reserved Characters

^ Glyph ^ Glyph Name ^
| <     | (less than) |
| >     | (greater than) |
| :     | (colon) |
| "     | (double quote) |
| /     | (forward slash) |
| \     | (backslash) |
| %%|%%    | (vertical bar or pipe) |
| ?     | (question mark) |
| \*    | (asterisk) |
| | AND all control codes (<= 31) |

The list above was extracted from an MSDN reference page posted at  
%%https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa365247(v=vs.85).aspx#naming_conventions%%  
(the dokuwiki interpreter chokes on the parens embedded in the URL, so I don't seem to be able to create a clickable link to that anchor. sorry!)

## Randy's list of goofy characters to try using for secret abbreviations

^ Glyph ^ Glyph Name ^ Comment (reason not to use this glyph) ^
| !     | (bang)     | negation operator |
| #     | (pound)    | unix script commenting character |
| $     | (dollar)   | unix variable signifier, eg, $var1; EOL in regex |
| %     | (percent)  | modulo operator |
| &     | (ampersand) | concatenation operator |
| \(    | (left paren)| open regex group |
| \)    | (right paren)| close regex group |
| +     | (plus sign) | addition operator |
| ;     | (semicolon) | unix script command separator character |
| =     | (equals)   | assignment operator |
| @     | (at sign)  | _HEY FOLKS! IT LOOKS LIKE WE HAVE A WINNER!_ |
| \[    | (left bracket)| open regex range |
| \]    | (right bracket)| close regex range |
| ~     | (tilde)    | home directory shortcut |
| %%^%% | (caret)    | beginning of line in regex |
| \{    | (left brace)| regex marker |
| \}    | (right brace) | regex marker |