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Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd Path: sserve!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!bunyip.cc.uq.oz.au!munnari.oz.au!spool.mu.edu!news.clark.edu!sun.lclark.edu!news.reed.edu!usenet.ee.pdx.edu!insosf1.infonet.net!solaris.cc.vt.edu!news.mathworks.com!news.alpha.net!uwm.edu!cs.utexas.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!pipex!sunic!umdac!cs.umu.se!dvlsas From: dvlsas@cs.umu.se (Sebastian Andersson) Subject: Re: Removing a file with a leading "-" in the name Message-ID: <D4GE5w.AqL@cs.umu.se> Sender: news@cs.umu.se (News Administrator) Organization: Dept. of Computing Science, Umea Univ., 901 87 Umea, Sweden References: <1995Feb20.023938.20960@rai.juice.or.jp> <3iedls$hks@ixnews3.ix.netcom.com> Date: Thu, 23 Feb 1995 12:46:39 GMT Lines: 47 In article <3iedls$hks@ixnews3.ix.netcom.com>, Lisa B. <lisab@ix.netcom.com> wrote: >In <1995Feb20.023938.20960@rai.juice.or.jp> tetsuji@rai.juice.or.jp >(Tetsuji Rai) writes: > >> >> >>Hi all, >> The title says it all. I wonder how to remove a file with "-" in the >>begining of file name (such as "-foo"). You must not program for >that. >>Simply use unix commands. I just made a file "-.rej" by mistake, and >>wondering how to erase it without programming. Somehow rm recognizes >>"-" character as an option. >> >>-Tetsuji >> > >use a back slash rm \-.rej > >the back slash "tells" the terminal emulation that the next char is to >be used as a char, not as a .... Yes, this had worked if the character was a control character to the shell, but - is a control character to the command rm and to escape it from the shell serves no purpose. The correct way to do this is: rm - -.rej The first - character tells rm that it is the end of options and the rest of the line is filenames. > >PS: Watch out for trying to back space after a back slash. The back >space becomes part of the string you are typing. And no, this is nothing to watch out for (not in any shell I've used anyway). What you might had in mind was to write something like ctrl-v back-space in csh and tcsh. > >JACKB /Sebastian -- Play DUMII at dum.ts.umu.se 2001 DISCLAIMER: Pepsi, the Devil, made me do it.