On Jan 22, 2008 11:46 AM, Eric B. <ebenze at hotmail.com> wrote: > Hi, > > I've got an odd situation here. Somehow, I find myself with two files that > start with the - character. > [eric at 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 at 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? > > Thanks! > Eric Try "rm -- filename" That's two dashes, then a space. That tells 'rm' not to process any more arguments and switches and treat them as files.