spaces in directory names

hello, I have encountered this on several cds and well when i went to a friend's ftp site in windows, using linux and php(i think its a linux mainly question) but i have run accross files and directory names like this: they appear like this in linux, path\ of\ the\ windows\ file.txt i am trying to read a directory from a cd made in windows with a 3-word or longer directory name like the one shown above, but how do i deal with a oddly named directory like that in linux/php? I know spaces don't work when changing directories so would i have to escape the space or what? matt simple question again