# opening series files using "--data" command line option failed
**URL:** https://discourse.paraview.org/t/opening-series-files-using-data-command-line-option-failed/12728
**Category:** ParaView Support
**Created:** [August 21, 2023, 2:57pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/opening-series-files-using-data-command-line-option-failed/12728 "2023-08-21T14:57:40Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@dchzsz741](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/dchzsz741)
#### Post date: [August 21, 2023, 2:57pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/opening-series-files-using-data-command-line-option-failed/12728/1 "2023-08-21T14:57:40Z")
Hi all, I got a problem when opening series files using the “–data” command line option.
Problem: Suppose two data files named “my0.vtk” and “my1.vtk” exist in the folder “test”. The command “paraview --data=test/my…vtk” yields error messages:
> critical: In unknown, line 0
> critical: Cannot open data file " “test/my…vtk” "
However, the command “paraview --data=test/my0.vtk” or “paraview --data=test/my1.vtk” works well. Other information which might be useful:
OS: Ubuntu 20.04.6 LTS
ParaView Version: 5.11.1-1529-g31dbe2d683
How is ParaView installed: I followed [this](https://gitlab.kitware.com/paraview/paraview/blob/master/Documentation/dev/build.md#ubuntu-1804-lts-debian-10)
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### Author:  [@mwestphal](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/mwestphal)
#### Post date: [August 22, 2023, 7:20am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/opening-series-files-using-data-command-line-option-failed/12728/2 "2023-08-22T07:20:35Z")
As documented in the `--help`, the syntax is like this:
`paraview --data=test/my..vtk`
Works fine here.
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### Author:  [@dchzsz741](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/dchzsz741)
#### Post date: [August 22, 2023, 1:57pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/opening-series-files-using-data-command-line-option-failed/12728/3 "2023-08-22T13:57:25Z")
Thank you for your reply! I’m sorry there are typos in my description. The command I used is `paraview --data=test/my..vtk` (with two dots) and the error messages are
> critical: In unknown, line 0
> critical: Cannot open data file " “test/my…vtk” "
In fact, I followed the `--help` but it doesn’t work. It’s so weird.
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### Author:  [@mwestphal](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/mwestphal)
#### Post date: [August 22, 2023, 1:59pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/opening-series-files-using-data-command-line-option-failed/12728/4 "2023-08-22T13:59:22Z")
Please share your .vtk data.
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### Author:  [@dchzsz741](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/dchzsz741)
#### Post date: [August 22, 2023, 2:00pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/opening-series-files-using-data-command-line-option-failed/12728/5 "2023-08-22T14:00:02Z")
Sure, here it is.
[my0.vtk](https://discourse.paraview.org/uploads/short-url/wCLtdgonq1s8DgOPEq9WhWbIokW.vtk) (3.2 MB)
[my1.vtk](https://discourse.paraview.org/uploads/short-url/4cCLysK9o5XrhBg6xzhnq8nrOL5.vtk) (3.3 MB)
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### Author:  [@mwestphal](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/mwestphal)
#### Post date: [August 23, 2023, 7:45am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/opening-series-files-using-data-command-line-option-failed/12728/6 "2023-08-23T07:45:47Z")
`./bin/paraview --data=~/data/tmp/my..vtk`
works perfectly with ParaView 5.11.1 binary release on ArchLinux.
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### Author:  [@dchzsz741](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/dchzsz741)
#### Post date: [August 23, 2023, 2:38pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/opening-series-files-using-data-command-line-option-failed/12728/7 "2023-08-23T14:38:37Z")
Thank you so much! I tried the binary release and it works!