Removing a file named like a command flag

yuchai · 07-26-2006, 02:25 PM

I messed up on a tar command and ended up with a file named "--exclude=tmp"

When I try to use rm to remove it, it thinks the "--exclude=tmp" is a flag and gives me an error.

Code:

root@livingroom:/home/yuchai/backup/fileserve# ls -al
total 312200
-rw-r--r--  1 root   root   35549184 2006-07-26 15:08 --exclude=tmp
drwxr-xr-x  2 yuchai users       144 2006-07-26 15:15 .
drwxr-xr-x  3 yuchai users        49 2005-10-03 11:38 ..
-rw-r--r--  1 yuchai users   9637939 2005-10-03 13:27 backupetc.tar.gz
-rw-r--r--  1 yuchai users       776 2005-10-06 21:42 fstab
-rw-r--r--  1 yuchai users      1092 2005-10-03 11:38 lilo.conf
-rw-r--r--  1 yuchai users      1143 2005-10-06 21:42 local.conf
-rw-r--r--  1 root   root  274309120 2006-07-26 15:21 root.tar.bz2
-rw-r--r--  1 yuchai users       730 2005-10-03 11:46 smb.conf
-rw-r--r--  1 yuchai users     20140 2005-10-03 11:46 xorg.conf
root@livingroom:/home/yuchai/backup/fileserve# rm --exclude\=tmp
rm: unrecognized option `--exclude=tmp'
Try `rm --help' for more information.

How do I remove this file?

druuna · 07-26-2006, 02:32 PM

Hi,

As stated in the rm manpage:

rm -- --exclude=tmp

or

rm ./--exclude=tmp

Hope this helps.