Xref: utzoo comp.unix.xenix:6020 comp.unix.questions:13650 comp.unix.wizards:16169
Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!att!ncsc1!dgp
From: dgp@ncsc1.ATT.COM (Dennis Pelton x8876)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.xenix,comp.unix.questions,comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: Ugly file name
Summary: rm anything -else
Keywords: rm cat mv regexp
Message-ID: <480@ncsc1.ATT.COM>
Date: 16 May 89 21:34:04 GMT
References: <128@tdl.UUCP> <7170@bsu-cs.bsu.edu> <1614@auspex.auspex.com> <448@hsi86.hsi.UUCP>
Distribution: usa
Organization: AT&T NCSC, Englewood,CO
Lines: 22

In article <448@hsi86.hsi.UUCP>, derek@hsi.UUCP (Derek Lee-Wo) writes:
> In article <1614@auspex.auspex.com> guy@auspex.auspex.com (Guy Harris) writes:
> :Helpful Hints #1273: if you have a file name containing characters that
> :the shell assigns special significance to, put the file name in single
> :quotes when typing it as a file name:
> :	% rm 'odds&ends'
> 
> This doesn't work for filenames that start with a minus. eg -badfile
> Anyone know how to erase such files with whipping up a short C program?
> Derek Lee-Wo (Co-op),   Health Systems International, New Haven, CT 06511

The construction

# rm foo any-other-file

will remove any-other-file even if it starts with a '-' sign.  This assumes
that either foo does not exist or you don't care if it doesn't exist.  What
happens is that rm assumes, once it gets a non-negative (:-) argument, that
all succeeding arguments are file names.

Dennis Pelton
att.com.UUCP!ncsc5!dgp