Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!ames!pasteur!ucbvax!decvax!mcnc!rti!xyzzy!goudreau
From: goudreau@xyzzy.UUCP (Bob Goudreau)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: an rm question
Message-ID: <793@xyzzy.UUCP>
Date: 18 Apr 88 05:05:20 GMT
References: <27133@yale-celray.yale.UUCP> <670012@hpclscu.HP.COM>
Reply-To: goudreau@rtp48.UUCP (Bob Goudreau)
Organization: Data General Corporation, Research Triangle Park, NC
Lines: 21

In article <670012@hpclscu.HP.COM> shankar@hpclscu.HP.COM (Shankar Unni) writes:
>We had the same problem frequently when people would create files called,
>for instance "-b", and rm would choke (-b: illegal option!). The solution
>was (a) rm -- -b (the -- terminates the option list, IN MANY IMPLEMENTATIONS),
>or (b) rm nonexistentfile -b or (c) /etc/unlink -b (for superusers only).

The problems with these solutions are:  (a) is non-portable; (b) is a kludge;
and (c) is just unnecessarily harsh on your file system.

A cleaner and more general solution to this problem can be had by simply
thinking about the names by which a given file can be referenced.  That's
right, "names" not "name".  In particular, "./-b" will always do the trick.
There are an infinitude of other ways to refer to the offending file
that don't begin with "-", such as "/usr/foo/-b" (or whatever one of its full
pathnames may be), or "../foo/-b", or "././-b" or ....

-- 
	Bob Goudreau
	Data General Corp.,  62 Alexander Drive,
	Research Triangle Park, NC  27709
	(919) 248-6231
	{ihnp4, seismo, etc.}!mcnc!rti!xyzzy!goudreau
	goudreau@dg-rtp.dg.com