Problem with special file names

[Michael Albinus]

This bug report will be sent to the Free Software Foundation,
not to your local site managers!
Please write in English if possible, because the Emacs maintainers
usually do not have translators to read other languages for them.

Your bug report will be posted to the address@hidden mailing list.

Please describe exactly what actions triggered the bug
and the precise symptoms of the bug:

Given I have the file "/a:b" on my local machine. In order to open it,
I need to quote it as "/:/a:b". But this doesn't work, because
`find-file-noselect' does the following:

      (let* ((buf (get-file-buffer filename))
             (truename (abbreviate-file-name (file-truename filename)))
             (attributes (file-attributes truename))

(abbreviate-file-name (file-truename filename)) returns "/a:b". And
(file-attributes "/a:b") goes to Tramp ...

In GNU Emacs 21.3.50.12 (i686-pc-linux-gnu, X toolkit)
 of 2004-04-10 on magdalene
Important settings:
  value of $LC_ALL: nil
  value of $LC_COLLATE: nil
  value of $LC_CTYPE: nil
  value of $LC_MESSAGES: nil
  value of $LC_MONETARY: nil
  value of $LC_NUMERIC: nil
  value of $LC_TIME: nil
  value of $LANG: C
  locale-coding-system: nil
  default-enable-multibyte-characters: nil

Major mode: Dired by name

Minor modes in effect:
  display-time-mode: t
  auto-compression-mode: t
  partial-completion-mode: t
  show-paren-mode: t
  mouse-wheel-mode: t
  menu-bar-mode: t
  global-font-lock-mode: t
  font-lock-mode: t
  unify-8859-on-encoding-mode: t
  column-number-mode: t
  line-number-mode: t
  transient-mark-mode: t

Recent input:
<down> <down> <down> <down> <down> <down> <down> <down> 
<down> <down> <down> <down> <down> <down> <down> <down> 
<down> <down> <down> <down> <return> <end> <up> <up> 
<up> <up> <up> <up> <up> <up> <up> <up> <up> <right> 
<right> <right> <right> <right> <right> <right> <right> 
<right> <right> <right> <right> <right> <right> <right> 
<right> <right> <right> <right> <right> <right> <right> 
<right> <right> <right> <right> <right> <right> <right> 
<right> <right> <right> <right> <right> <right> <right> 
<right> <right> <right> <right> <right> <right> <right> 
<right> <right> <right> <right> <return> q <escape> 
x <up> <end> - <tab> <return> q <escape> x <up> <end> 
<backspace> <backspace> <backspace> <backspace> <backspace> 
<return>

Recent messages:
Fontifying .gnus... (regexps.............)
Mark saved where search started
Auto-saving...
Mark saved where search started [2 times]
Wrote /home/albinus/.gnus
Loading emacsbug...done
Fontifying *message 1*... (regexps..................)
Mark set [3 times]
Mark saved where search started
Mark set