Date: Fri, 1 Dec 2000 16:46:10 -0600 (CST) From: Mike Meyer <mwm@mired.org> To: Joe Oliveiro <joe@advancewebhosting.com> Cc: Larry Rosenman <ler@lerctr.org>, Daniel.Bye@uk.uu.net, questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Pesky file Message-ID: <14888.10802.824157.322136@guru.mired.org> In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.4.21.0012011703120.17623-100000@joe.pythonvideo.com> References: <14888.4617.148599.530943@guru.mired.org> <Pine.BSF.4.21.0012011703120.17623-100000@joe.pythonvideo.com>
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Joe Oliveiro <joe@advancewebhosting.com> types: > rm -rf "-help" > > will remove the file Did you try it before posting? Here's what happened when I tried it: guru$ touch ./-help guru$ rm -rf "-help" rm: illegal option -- h usage: rm [-f | -i] [-dPRrvW] file ... unlink file guru$ And it's the same reason as before - the leading '-' gets seen by rm as an options indicator, and then 'h' is an illegal option. To remove a file with a leading '-', you have to either hide the leading '-' (which is what ./-help does), or convince rm to not look for options (which is what '--' does). <mike > FreeBSD - The BEST upgrade you can do to NT! > > On Fri, 1 Dec 2000, Mike Meyer wrote: > > > Larry Rosenman <ler@lerctr.org> types: > > > * Daniel Bye <Daniel.Bye@uk.uu.net> [001201 05:21]: > > > > Hi all, > > > > > > > > Here's a question for a Friday morning... Somehow, I have ended up with a > > > > file named -help in my home directory. How can I get rid of it? It is 0 > > > > bytes, > > > > and if I try to rm, mv, unlink it etc, the shell interprets the file name as > > > > an > > > > argument to the program and spews forth errors. Backslash escaping it > > > > doesn't work, and neither does quoting it. > > > rm -- -help > > > > > > or rm -i ?help > > > > That won't work any more than "rm *help" would. The problem with both > > of them is that the shell expands the metacharacters, so that rm sees > > the "-" first, so thinks it's an argument. > > > > Just FWIW, if you happen to be on a system that doesn't recognize the > > "--" convention (or need to run a command that doesn't), you can > > always do "rm ./-help". > > > > Trivia question: what two bytes can you *not* put in a Unix filename? > > > > <mike > > -- > > Mike Meyer <mwm@mired.org> http://www.mired.org/home/mwm/ > > Independent WWW/Unix/FreeBSD consultant, email for more information. > > > > > > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org > > with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message > > > > -- Mike Meyer <mwm@mired.org> http://www.mired.org/home/mwm/ Independent WWW/Unix/FreeBSD consultant, email for more information. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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