Cannot Delete a File

[Peter Maitland]

How do I delete a file that is named -i ? I cannot seem to delete it no matter what I do. Help would be appreciated.

Peter

[Wieslaw Krajewski · Accepted solution]

Hi,

For example:
cd /directory
rm ./-i

[Rob Smith]

Hi, try rm -- -i or ls -il to get the inode number and then change into the directory and find . -inum inode_number -exec rm {} \; to get rid of it. Hope this helps.

Rob

[A. Clay Stephenson]

cd to desired directory
ls -i to get inode_number
then
find . -inum inode_number -exec rm {} \;
that's it.

[Dan Bonham]

rm -- -i wil work. Some Administrators will put a file called -i in an important directory to protect it from accidental deletion.

[eric stewart]

I would like to compliment the users who answered this question. I had my own round about way of doing it but yours are so much better and easier. I was also impressed with the comment about adding the -i file to a directory where you do not want thing to be removed inadvertantly. I know I have done it.
Thanks again.

[Rajeev Tyagi]

You can also use rm in interactive mode.
Eg.
rm -i ./*

just say y to the file you want to delete.