The ones that have bitten me have been ed, du and ls. I fixed cleanname not to restamp the terminating zero on the string if its already there which makes cleanname(".") work (for ls).
du's problem is wrapped in String.h issues and I haven't dug any more. ed is exactly as you say. I assumed the problem was more extensive, berhaps its a non-problem with a couple of tiny fixes. Thanks, -Steve