Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!auspex!guy
From: guy@auspex.UUCP (Guy Harris)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.hp
Subject: Re: Trying to remove a file called "-ls"
Keywords: HP bug
Message-ID: <1158@auspex.UUCP>
Date: 13 Mar 89 19:56:25 GMT
References: <570@sdrc.UUCP>
Reply-To: guy@auspex.UUCP (Guy Harris)
Organization: Auspex Systems, Santa Clara
Lines: 29

>Now on any other UNIX system all I have to do is issue the
>command "rm -i *".

I tried it under SunOS and it didn't work, either.  The problem is that,
if "-ls" is the first file name, the command looks to the system like:

	rm -i -ls ...

and UNIX programs generally will *not* treat only the first argument
beginning with "-" as an options specifier; as such, it thinks "-ls" is
specifying the "l" and "s" flags to "rm".

The fix is that you somehow have to convince it that "-ls" isn't an
option.  There are a number of ways of doing this:

	1) pass a special flag that says "nothing after this is a flag,
	   even if it begins with "-".  The BSD "rm", upon which the
	   SunOS one is based, uses "-" for this.  The HP-UNIX one is
	   probably based on the System V one, which means it may accept
	   "--" for this:

		rm -i -- *

	2) stick something in front of the "-" in "-ls".  At least one
	   overly-complex way of doing this has been presented in a
	   previous posting; a simpler way is just to prepend "./" in
	   front of it:

		rm -i ./*