this post was submitted on 17 Jun 2026
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Explain Like I'm Five

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[–] gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works 5 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago) (8 children)

$ indicates that the string following is an env variable, but you just have a closing quote, so bash is confused.

If you want the literal character $ in your command, you must escape it: \$

Edit: afaik my answer does not change based on the fact that this is fish instead of bash or zsh. The $ is outside of the single quotes, and is thus being interpreted as an env var anchor.

[–] SpikesOtherDog@ani.social 1 points 8 hours ago (7 children)

They are using fish, FYI. Not sure how much of a difference this makes.

[–] LoveEspresso@retrofed.com 0 points 8 hours ago (2 children)

The actual folder is 'folder'$'\003' .

[–] gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works 6 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago) (1 children)

In that case, I think you want

rm -rf "'folder'\$'\\003'"

Note the double escape before 003, which will render to the character literal \

Alternatively, start typing

rm -rf \'fo

And then hit tab until fish autocompletes the directory you want to kill, and run it.

Side note: i would absolutely not tolerate directories named like that lol

[–] LoveEspresso@retrofed.com 1 points 6 hours ago

Thanks for the tip.

[–] hemko@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

Is this some school task...? Why is there a folder with such a name 😅

[–] LoveEspresso@retrofed.com 2 points 6 hours ago

Apparently yes. I'm learning things on my own.

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