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I have one directory that is being created automatically in my home folder. I remove it and it comes back. Now suddenly another directory have been created and I can't figure out why!?

victor@guinness:~$ ls -l
total 64K
drwxrwxr-x 2 victor victor 4,0K jul 15 13:55 ??_$?
drwxrwxr-x 2 victor victor 4,0K jul 10 19:00 'a?
drwxrwxr-x 3 victor victor 4,0K jun 19 21:09 Apps
drwxrwxr-x 2 victor victor 4,0K jun 12 20:59 cbt
drwxr-xr-x 2 victor victor 4,0K jul  3 18:54 Desktop
drwxr-xr-x 2 victor victor 4,0K jul  3 19:09 Documents
drwxr-xr-x 3 victor victor 4,0K jul 16 18:35 Downloads
drwxrwxr-x 3 victor victor 4,0K jul  3 18:54 Image-Line
drwxr-xr-x 3 victor victor 4,0K jun 28 17:45 Music
drwxr-xr-x 3 victor victor 4,0K jul 16 19:23 Pictures
drwxr-xr-x 2 victor victor 4,0K jun 11 20:43 Public
drwxrwxr-x 2 victor victor 4,0K jul 15 13:55 sv_SE.UTF-8
drwxr-xr-x 2 victor victor 4,0K jun 11 20:43 Templates
drwxrwxr-x 2 victor victor 4,0K jun 12 21:10 Ubuntu One
drwxr-xr-x 2 victor victor 4,0K jun 11 20:43 Videos
drwxrwxr-x 4 victor victor 4,0K jul  3 18:14 VirtualBox VMs

When trying to remove them in the terminal:

victor@guinness:~$ rm "'a^A^?"/
rm: cannot remove ‘'a\001\177/’: No such file or directory
victor@guinness:~$ rm "??_$?"
rm: cannot remove ‘??_1’: No such file or directory

Doing rm and a <tab>:

victor@guinness:~$ rm 
^W^L_$^?/             .gnome/               Public/
'a^?/                 .gnome2/              .remmina/
[...]

So it's some weird characters. Also, the directory "sv_SE.UTF-8" was created the same time as "??_$?". Maybe it's a connection?

This weird problem started after an fresh install of Ubuntu 13.04.

What can I do to find what's creating these folders?

Thanks in advance

EDIT: I've found that it is Transmission that is creating them!

screenshot

englund
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1 Answers1

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The "?" marks are substitute for a symbol, which is not compatible with your character set. usually it is enough to set up UTF8 char-set system-wide. Use some file manager to remove them, for example midnight commander. If you wandt to read the characters behind ? marks, use following guide (Full switch locale: Ubuntu server installed with no locales, how to enable locales systemwide?)

Your home folder is often used by some install scripts or installed software usually creates its own folder beginning with "." character (invisible folders - but probably not the case u have). What you send here could be some errorneous script running on start of some software. Delete the file/folder and try to catch the moment, when the file/folder is created. Then you will probably find the reason and source of your file.

Community
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Dee
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  • Thank you, but I know these folders probably is created by some script and also about the char-set and that I can remove the folders by using a file manager. I've tried observing when these directories are created but I cant find anything. I have never had this problem before, with the same programs installed as other installations.. – englund Jul 16 '13 at 19:14
  • L- not clear what is the content of dir's so identification is even harder... Always the same filenames are created or different? – Dee Jul 17 '13 at 14:44
  • It's empty and i've concluded that it's transmission that is creating the directories. – englund Jul 23 '13 at 16:00
  • Also, the dir's is empty and have the same names. – englund Jul 23 '13 at 16:21
  • L- what kind of "transmission" ? – Dee Jul 24 '13 at 06:52