How do I deal with a filename that starts with the hyphen (-) character?

Question

Somehow, at some point, I accidentally created a file in my home directory named \'-s\'. It is about 500 kb and I have no idea if it contains important data or not. I cannot

Answer 1

You can get rid of it with:

rm ./-s

The rm command (at least under Ubuntu 10.04) even tells you such:

pax@pax-desktop:~$ rm -w
rm: invalid option -- 'w'
Try `rm ./-w' to remove the file `-w'.
Try `rm --help' for more information.

The reason that works is because rm doesn't think it's an option (since it doesn't start with -) but it's still referring to the specific file in the current directory.

Answer 2

You can refer to it either using ./-filename or some command will allow you to put it after double dash:

rm -- -filename

Answer 3

You could use --, e.g.:

rm -- -file

Answer 4

besides using rm, if you know a language, you can also use them. They are not affected by such shell warts.

Ruby(1.9+)

$ ruby -rfileutils -e 'FileUtils.rm("-s")'

or

$ ruby -e 'File.unlink("-s")'