Filenames

Filenames can be up to 256 characters long. You can use any characters you like in a filename, except for the following metacharacters, which have a special meaning to the shell:

! ? " ' ` ; /  $ < > ( ) | { } [ ] ~

It is a good idea to choose meaningful filenames to make it easier to remember what the files contain.

Examples of legal filenames	Examples of illegal filenames
qtrone	qtr(one)
report.127	report|127
annualreport_1994	annualreport~1994

Filenames only have to be unique within a directory. In other words, you can have as many files named report as you like, as long as there is only one report per directory.