How to deal with filenames starting with "-" or "--"?

[KIA]aze · 07-08-2007, 12:52 AM

How can I deal with filenames starting with "-" or "--"?
I can list, rename, move, copy, delete them through the GUI, but I am unable to do this through the command-line.

What's the trick to use such filenames like "--fobar" in a command-line?
Whatever I do (",',\), bash seems to interpret the -* as an option, so I keep getting an "unrecognized option" error.

wjevans_7d1@yahoo.co · 07-08-2007, 01:09 AM

After the last switch (if any), use "--" by itself, and anything after that will be interpreted as a filename.

Example:

Code:

wally:~/saturday$ ls
wally:~/saturday$ touch -- -abcd
wally:~/saturday$ touch -- --abcd
wally:~/saturday$ ls
--abcd  -abcd
wally:~/saturday$ # following will fail because it seems like "ls --abcd -abcd"
wally:~/saturday$ ls *abcd
ls: unrecognized option `--abcd'
Try `ls --help' for more information.
wally:~/saturday$ # but this will work:
wally:~/saturday$ ls -- *abcd
--abcd  -abcd
wally:~/saturday$

Hope this helps.

[KIA]aze · 07-08-2007, 01:31 AM

Thanks, that works.