4

I've got a file called -T on my linux box, and, I thought I could do 

 rm "-T"

or

 rm "\-T"

or

 rm \-T

or

 rm *T

Alas, I've run out of simple tricks (or I'm misuing them).

I keep getting the error message: 

rm: invalid option -- T

I'm pretty sure I could delete this file with some FTP client, but that feels like cheating. Can someone point me in the right direction?

cgp
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    The reason that all your variations on rm didn't work is because bash was expanding them to 'rm -T'. So you would consistently get rm called with '-T'. – Kevin M Jul 08 '09 at 18:26

6 Answers6

19

A lot of *nix commands have a '--' option, which means "this is where the options end, anything from here onwards that looks like an option, isn't".

rm -- -filename

Not 100% sure if rm supports that, I'm a bit rusty.

ThatGraemeGuy
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15

Use the "--" option to tell rm that there are no more options coming.

 rm -- -T

You can also put a "./" in front of the file like this:

 rm ./-T

As a third option, you can often use a graphic file viewer and drag it into the trash.

Alan H
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7

Try prefixing your file with ./ I think this works.

Brent
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2

I just had to try:

gw:~/kana # rm -T
rm: invalid option -- 'T'
Try `rm ./-T' to remove the file `-T'.
Try `rm --help' for more information.
gw:~/kana # rm ./-T
Marie Fischer
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1

Put the current directory in front of the file name, which will prevent the program from thinking you're passing it a parameter.

$ rm ./-T

-Kevin

Kevin Elliott
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1

Well, back in the day you could use ls -il or stat to print out the inode of the file then use find with an -inode flag and use -exec to call rm on that file!

I guess the post-early 90's are still calling me...... :)

Wayne
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