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From: subbarao@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Kartik Subbarao)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: I have a file named "-"
Message-ID: <6668@idunno.Princeton.EDU>
Date: 27 Feb 91 05:12:34 GMT
References: <22834@hydra.gatech.EDU> <1991Feb26.170212.22920@convex.com> <6661@idunno.Princeton.EDU>
Sender: news@idunno.Princeton.EDU
Lines: 65

In article <6661@idunno.Princeton.EDU> pfalstad@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Paul Falstad) writes:
>tchrist@convex.COM (Tom Christiansen) wrote:
>>From the keyboard of gt2807a@prism.gatech.EDU (Benjamin H. Cowan):
>>:  I have a file whose name consists of the single character "-".  I can't
>>:rm it or mv it or cat it or more it or anything to it.  How can I get rid of
>>:it?
>
>>Ask a coworker.
>>
>>Burn your computer.
>>
>>Throw out the disk.
>
>Ask a coworker!?!  Please, please; let's at least answer the question
>before tempers get out of control.
>
>If you have a file that simply has a '/' in it, you can
>just quote the slash:
>
>   rm "/"
>
>But a file with a - in it takes special handling.  Fortunately there are
>many ways to remove a file like this.

[numerous software solutions deleted]

Aww, that's the problem with you CS majors: Now an EE like myself, I'd do
it this way;

    Go to the disk and assert the write signal for the particular track and
    sector, zero in on the right place, and poof -- your file is gone.

This is guaranteed to be the simplest and fastest way to do things, provably in order n log n time. (oops, that's a CS saying).

			-Kartik


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