Unix Question And Answers

How do I remove a file whose name begins with a "-" ?
Figure out some way to name the file so that it doesn't begin with a dash. The simplest answer is to use rm ./-filename (assuming "-filename" is in the current directory, of course.) This method of avoiding the interpretation of the "-" works with other commands too. Many commands, particularly those that have been written to use the "getopt(3)" argument parsing routine, accept a "--" argument which means "this is the last option, anything after this is not an option", so your version of rm might handle "rm -- -filename". Some versions of rm that don't use getopt() treat a single "-" in the same way, so you can also try "rm - -filename".