On Tue, Jan 22, 2008 at 11:46:57AM -0500, Eric B. enlightened us:
I've got an odd situation here. Somehow, I find myself with two files that start with the - character. [eric@apollo mysql]$ ls -l total 93348 -rw-r--r-- 1 mysql mysql 9273344 Nov 13 19:03 -N=2007-11-08 -rw-r--r-- 1 mysql mysql 38879232 Nov 13 19:02 --newer=2007-11-08
Don't ask how they were created; something went wrong with a script at some point.
My problem is that I am trying to delete them, but can't figure out how to delete these files. Everything I try, I get the same msg: [eric@apollo mysql]$ rm '-N=2007-11-08' rm: invalid option -- N Try `rm --help' for more information.
I have tried single quotes, double quotes, escaping it with a \ and still get the same error.
Any ideas / suggestions?
rm -- -N=2007-11-08
The -- tells (most?) programs to stop processing options. This is listed as an example in the rm man page, so you should know that, right? I mean, you *did* read the man page....
Matt