Is it safe to delete files with extensions containing non-alphanumeric characters?

I was working with Eagle 4.16r2 (Yes I know its old), and when I work on my project in it, I happen to save my work frequently as files with extensions .brd and .sch.

I just did a backup and now I see a ton of files which I did not create. The core name is the same name I used but the extensions are .s#n and .b#n where n is a number (and '#' is actually in the extension), and it seems each of these files that are created roughly are the same size in disk space as the ones with the proper extensions.

In the program itself when I'm browsing for the files, only the files with the proper extensions are listed.

So is it always safe to delete files with extensions containing non-alphanumeric characters?

Mike

Posted 2018-04-03T07:18:59.663

Reputation: 211

7Pretty sure numbers are alphanumeric... – Persistence – 2018-04-03T12:57:07.520

10@JamesHughes But the # is not. I was confused at first reading the question too :-) The # is not a place-holder for a number in this case. The number follows the # character. – Tonny – 2018-04-03T13:08:57.380

Ahh... My mistake – Persistence – 2018-04-03T14:47:19.300

Answers

No, temporary file handling is entirely determined by the application that manages the files; there are no rules or even conventions across apps.

Frank Thomas

Posted 2018-04-03T07:18:59.663

Reputation: 29 039

6mp3 is alphanumeric. OP is asking about non-alphanumeric, i.e: . – ILikeTacos – 2018-04-03T13:46:34.973

@ILikeTacos Although unsanitary, you can touch on modern OSes without any problem. Don't forget to wash your hands !

– Aaron – 2018-04-03T15:03:08.577

Edited to remove reference to MP3. The core message remains; apps handle their types themselves, and there are no rules that allow assumptions like the one the OP would like to make. – Frank Thomas – 2018-04-04T14:43:09.420

Not in general. In case of Eagle .b#1 and .s#1 files are created when you save your design, so they are backups. You can delete them.

filo

Posted 2018-04-03T07:18:59.663

Reputation: 203

Yes. It's and you can delete them, if you know the name pattern rules. And it happens that you know them.

If you are convinced that you can delete these files, not causing side effects in the application that created them, you have some command line options:

Bash (Windows, Linux, or OSX) - The most precise way, there are no risks of deleting files like xxx.s#aa (letters instead of numbers on the last 2 characters) ls *.s#?? *.b#?? | grep '[0-9][0-9]$' | xargs rm

Bash (Windows, Linux, or OSX) - Any character (instead of only numeric characters): rm *.s#?? *.b#??

Windows - Any character (instead of only numeric characters): del *.s#?? del *.b#??

Luciano

Posted 2018-04-03T07:18:59.663

Reputation: 233