Been using Gimp for years on Windows. Have also use on Linux laptop (Mint) and never noticed this problem before but only an occasional user on Linux.

Now I've moved over on the desktop to Mint and Gimp is the ONLY program that exhibits this behaviour. So, looking to find out why and if there's a setting that I can make to change this.

So, If I save a file or Export a file and the original file is called something like "Parking Location xyz" the save or export dialogues show the filename as "Parking%20Location%20xyz" and sure enough when it's saved, the file has that name - with the additional characters representing escaped spaces as part of the file name.

Not sure if this is the OS causing this or Gimp itself. Given that no other program I use (Inkscape, Libreoffice, text editors etc) do this I am assuming that it's something to do with how GIMP integrates with Mint.

Using GIMP from the Mint repository which is 2.10.36 and Mint 22.3 Cinnamon.

Any ideas?

Linux user for 25 years. I don't have spaces in filenames. For example 'Parking Location xyz' would be 'ParkingLocation-xyz'. I often use a hyphen or an underscore to separate letters or numbers. My system is a lot happier. Computers do so much for me that I'm willing to meet them halfway

I agree! It seems t me that ONLY windows allows spaces in file names. But don't use ? LOL

My Linux Mint does not do that.
Not with GIMP 2.10 or any other version.
@OP: you might need to check your language settings (there is a "control center" with a language settings item) That's where I would look.