On Tue, Jun 29, 2021 at 9:06 PM Michael Barnes <barnmich...@gmail.com>
wrote:
> On Tue, Jun 29, 2021 at 7:47 AM Paul Heinlein <heinl...@madboa.com> wrote:
>
> > On Tue, 29 Jun 2021, Michael Barnes wrote:
> >
> > > Somehow, I managed to create a file named -u. I cannot figure out how
> to
> > > look at it as any command I give thinks -u is an option, not the
> > filename.
> > >
> > > I cannot read, edit, move, delete, or anything.
> > >
> > > Ideas appreciated.
> >
> > Most GNU utilities will stop interpreting options when they encounter
> > a bare ' -- ' string. So this should work
> >
> > mv -- -u newfilename
> >
> > Or, just use the . directory in the filename:
> >
> > less ./-u
> >
> > --
> > Paul Heinlein
> > heinl...@madboa.com
> > 45.38° N, 122.59° W
>
>
> Paul got it, although I figured it out about ten minutes after I sent my
> request.
> less ./-u did the trick.
>
> Thanks,
> Michael
>
This actually comes up so often that there's a section in the man page
about it:
$ man rm | cat -n | grep -B1 -A5 starts
56
57 To remove a file whose name starts with a '-', for example
'-foo', use one of these commands:
58
59 rm -- -foo
60
61 rm ./-foo
62
Regards,
- Robert
