Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!helios!bcm!convex!tchrist From: tchrist@convex.COM (Tom Christiansen) Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards Subject: comp.unix.ask-the-wizards (was: rm ./- (I have a file named "-")) Message-ID: <1991Feb26.194033.9539@convex.com> Date: 26 Feb 91 19:40:33 GMT References: <22834@hydra.gatech.EDU> <1991Feb26.175824.11666@usenet.ins.cwru.edu> Sender: tchrist@convex.com (Tom Christiansen) Reply-To: tchrist@convex.COM (Tom Christiansen) Organization: CONVEX Software Development, Richardson, TX Lines: 41 From the keyboard of dean@po.CWRU.Edu: :> :>Here's an answer and I've tested it: rm ./- : :What's wrong with 'rm - -filename'??? It's in TFM and works under :SUN OS, AIX, and Ultrix. I assume it works under others too, but :I only have access to those 3 at the moment. Because not all programs interpret dash that way. Consider "tar f -". On the other hand, all programs will handle "./-" because it's in the kernel (namei, lookuppn, or whatever your local flavor is) that this is "recognized". :I don't think this qualifies as a dumb answer (it is the way TFM says :to do it.) And I don't think it's a flame either. Just a simple :way of doing the deed, and an explination of a feature put into :rm to get around this particular problem. Please expline why comp.unix.wizards should be the place for people to post REALLY TRIVIALLY SIMPLE QUESTIONS ABOUT UNIX that they could have: read in the manual read in the faq asked at their site posted to comp.unix.questions I now clearly see why we should have let c.u.wizards die: it just attracts this kind of noise. What real wizard is really going to wade through the dreck to get at the good stuff. We've had about one of these a day lately in this group. Let's rename it to comp.unix.ask-the-wizards, and then the rest of us can go off to comp.unix.internals where they won't know to find us. :-) --tom -- "UNIX was not designed to stop you from doing stupid things, because that would also stop you from doing clever things." -- Doug Gwyn Tom Christiansen tchrist@convex.com convex!tchrist Brought to you by Super Global Mega Corp .com