How do I create a directory with a trailing space?

To create a directory in Windows with a trailing space character, bring up a command prompt and enter the following:

md "\\?\C:\mydirectory "

The directory must be an absolute (not relative) directory and must be prefixed with \\?\

Similarly you can delete the directory with the rd command

rd "\\?\C:\mydirectory "

but the directory must be empty before deleting it with this command.

Please note that creating a file not supported by Windows can create a situation where you may be unable to delete it by normal means.

Boot into a linux install or live cd, then run this command

mkdir "<mountpoint>/dirname"

You will need the quotation marks.

See this for how to delete

cygwin can

$ mkdir 'abcde'

$ mkdir 'abcde '

$ mkdir 'abcde  '

$ ls -l
total 0
drwxr-xr-x+ 1 user None 0 May 15 17:11 abcde
drwxr-xr-x+ 1 user None 0 May 15 17:11 abcde
drwxr-xr-x+ 1 user None 0 May 15 17:11 abcde

ok it clearly worked since we have 3 distinct directories, but let's try to get some kind of further proof

$ echo * | xxd
0000000: 6162 6364 6520 6162 6364 6520 2061 6263  abcde abcde  abc
0000010: 6465 2020 0a                             de  .

6162 6364 65 20<---- that's the dir abcde, and echo * put a space in after as there is another item it lists.

6162 6364 6520 20 <-- that's the dir 'abcde ', and echo * displayed it with a space in as there is another item it lists

61 62636465 2020 0a  <-- that's the dir 'abcde  ', and echo * displayed it followed by new line(0a)

Another

ls offers some formatting options like verical and others e.g. with commas

--format=WORD
       across -x, commas -m, horizontal -x, long -l, single-column  -1,
       verbose -l, vertical -C

--

$ ls -m
abcde, abcde , abcde

Notice the space before the comma that is because the space is in the filename. The ', ' is formatting. But ' ,' shows the space is in the filename.

$ ls -m | xxd
0000000: 6162 6364 652c 2061 6263 6465 202c 2061  abcde, abcde , a
0000010: 6263 6465 2020 0a                        bcde  .

--

a very clear demonstration without needing to look at any hex to verify, is-

$ mkdir 'abcde           '


$ mkdir z


$ ls -m
abcde, abcde , abcde  , abcde           , z


$

Another way, as Mafu mentions in comment, is Mingw which has an Msys package you can install in the ming mackage manager, and msys installs many commands to C:\MinGW\msys\1.0\bin> e.g. mkdir.exe, and has a bash.exe too