[XeTeX] What characters are allowed in filenames?

[Khaled Hosny]

On Thu, Aug 30, 2012 at 05:50:41AM -0400, Ari Meir Brodsky wrote:
> What characters does XeLaTeX allow in file names, and why do they seem to be
> different from PdfLaTeX?  I've created a simple file named:
> 
> mainfile(parens).tex
> 
> It runs fine with both pdfLaTeX and LuaLaTeX, but when I try to run XeLaTeX
> on it, I get the following console output:
> 
> --------------------------------------------------------
> This is XeTeX, Version 3.1415926-2.4-0.9998 (MiKTeX 2.9)
> entering extended mode
> ! I can't find file `mainfileparens.tex'.
> <*> mainfile(parens).tex
>                         
> Please type another input file name: 
> --------------------------------------------------------
> 
> Why does XeLaTeX not accept the same file names that the other engines
> accept?

http://tug.org/pipermail/xetex/2009-December/015314.html

Regards,
 Khaled