Some ISO Latin-1 characters require the circumflex (^) to precede
    them in a file specification in order to be interpreted as
    literal characters rather than special function characters.
    The circumflex (^) is interpreted by the system as an escape
    character.

    o  The circumflex (^) followed by underscore (_) or by a space
       represents a space.

    o  The circumflex (^) followed by any of the following characters
       means that the character is to be used as part of a file name
       rather than having any special meaning that it might otherwise
       have in a file specification:

       .  ,  ;  [  ]  %  ^  &

    o  A user can enter a literal period (.) with or without the
       circumflex (^) in a file name. The system adds the circumflex
       to any periods other than those that act as delimiters for the
       file type and version number. Literal periods (.) in directory
       names must be preceded by the circumflex.

       File names containing special characters cannot be accessed
       from a VAX system.