user:/var/www/core# ls -l
total 56
-rw-r–r– 1 root     root      213 2009-06-01 07:14 \
-rw-r–r– 1 user user 378 2009-05-21 09:14 ads.php

We try to delete it but it is not possible because the back slash is a special charter.

user:/var/www/core# rm \
>

So we have to go and list out the inode numbers.  Those are the inode numbers in the first collum.

user:/var/www/core# ls -li
total 56
458132 -rw-r–r– 1 root     root      213 2009-06-01 07:14 \
457759 -rw-r–r– 1 user user 378 2009-05-21 09:14 ads.php

So now we use find to delete the inode number which in turn deletes the file.

user:/var/www/core# find . -inum 458132 -exec rm -i {} \;
rm: remove regular file `./\\’? y
user:/var/www/core# ls -l
total 52
-rw-r–r– 1 user user 378 2009-05-21 09:14 ads.php

root@server# ssfdkjfkjf^?^?^?^?

What are those funky charaters at the end, yup they are me trying to use the back space, but I just end up getting further away from the charaters that I am tryign to delete.

So now for the majick solution.

root@server# stty erase ^?

so the command stty sets options for the terminal session. Then you are telling it what key you want to use to erase with. Which is what the ^? is the erase key being used, so type stty erase space key then back space key then Enter, and you should be back to sanity once again.

TERM=vt100 ; export TERM ; EDITOR=vi;export EDITOR

user@server:~$ echo $TERM
xterm
user@server:~$ TERM=vt100 ; export TERM ; EDITOR=vi;export EDITOR
user@server:~$ echo $TERM
vt100