> On Thu, Jan 07, 2021 at 08:18:34PM -0500, Aruna Hewapathirane via talk wrote:
> Why not simply rename the file to something.pdf ?

> I just tested and the command(s) below works:
> mv 'RE: something.pdf' something.pdf && evince something.pdf && mv
> something.pdf 'RE: something.pdf'
 
> unless of course there is a real need to have it work using evince "RE:
> someting.pdf"?
 
>> : is special in filenames if it is before the first directory separator
>> for many programs since it might be host:filepath
 
I just learnt something useful, thank you :-)

>> evince for example allows ftp://host/file so it clearly cares about :
>> in the filename before any slash.

I had no idea evince can ftp till just now either..

>> That's why using ./ in front works. 

I just tried it and yes it works but I do not yet fully understand the reason why it does work? Further
clarification would be most welcome ?

>> Otherwise you have to escape the : with a \ or perhaps even two of them depending who strips it.

Tried all possible escape sequence but zilch. No cigar :-(
And this is a bug that was documented way back in 2015
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1248086

Thank you Lennart - Aruna