How can I create a file named "\?$*'ChouMi'*$?\"?

Question

I need to create a file with this exact name "\?$*'ChouMi'*$?\" so that ls would show it as:

$ ls | cat -e
"\?$*'ChouMi'*$?\"$
$

Answer 1

Put the name in single quotes. This makes the shell not process backslashes or things that look like expansions in the string.

For each embedded single quote, temporarily break out of the single-quoted string and add a quoted single quote (this essentially means replacing each single quote with '\'' or '"'"' on the command line):

$ touch '"\?$*'\''ChouMi'\''*$?\"'
$ ls
"\?$*'ChouMi'*$?\"

Similarily if you need the name in a variable:

$ name='"\?$*'\''ChouMi'\''*$?\"'
$ touch "$name"
$ ls
"\?$*'ChouMi'*$?\"

(Note that the quoting of $name whenever that value is used is essential.)

Somewhat related:

• bash escaping quotes