how to remove directories of name like "-a" & "-".

[Karthikeyan_5]

Hi,

mistakenly some body have created few directories with the name starting with the "-" (minus) sign & "-" itself.....for e.g. -a, -cad, - ......

when i try to remove "-a" dir using the following command:

#rm -rf -a

i am getting the following error message:

rm:illegal option -- a
Usage: rm [-Rfir] file ...

And I am afraid to try the same above command for removing "-" dir because "-" in unix stands for previous dir (i mean successful prev. cd).

Can anyone tell me how to remove the above said directories.....

Thanks in advance.....

[Massimo Bianchi]

Quote it :)

rm -r "-a"

Massimo

[Tom Geudens]

Hi,
rm -- -a
Will do the trick ...

Regards,
Tom Geudens

[Michael Tully]

Place the directory name in quotes.

$ rm -rf "-a"

[Tim Adamson_1]

Hi,

Try the following:

rmdir -- -a
rmdir -- -


Cheers

[Tom Geudens]

Hi,
Sorry about that ... should have been
rm -rf -- -a
or
rmdir -- -a

-- ends the commandline options

Regards again,
Tom

[twang]

# rm -r "-a"

[john korterman]

Hi,

# cd
# rm ./-a

will also work. If you want to create the file again in order to try another suggestion, then # touch -- -a

regards,
John K.

[Simone Benzi_1]

Hi,

You ca also easily remove it from the parent directory:

cd ..
rmdir /-a

or from your current directory:

rmdir ./-a

Bye!

Simone

[Fragon]

For example /somedir/-a,
#cd somedir
#rm -r "./-a"

-ux

[blal]

Hi

This will also work.

find . -name "-*" -exec rm -r -f {} \;

This will remove all any file or directory starting with "-".


regds
baiju.

[sdip · Accepted solution]

First try to find out the inode number of that directory by "ls -li" and then execute the following command.
find . -inum -exec rm -rf {} \;

[Karthikeyan_5]

hi all,

first of all I thank all of you for showing interest......

My problem is solved and i used the following commands:

rm -rf -- -a
rm -rf -- -

or

rm -r "./-a"
rm -r "./-"

or

find . -inum -exec rm -rf {} \;

Where
--> get inode number of that
directory by "ls -li".

Some person has given "rmdir" and if i am correct then this command will be useful or successful only when the directory is empty.

Few more have stated

rm -- -a
and
rm -rf "-a"

Inorder to remove a dir i think we have to use "-r" along with "rm" command in the first and the above second command will give error...

Thank you.......

karthik