misc/115183: Can't delete certain files

[Remko Lodder]

The following reply was made to PR misc/115183; it has been noted by GNATS.

From: Remko Lodder <remko at FreeBSD.org>
To: "John S. Strock" <jstrock at batc.edu>,  bug-followup at FreeBSD.org, 
 freebsd-bugs at FreeBSD.org
Cc:  
Subject: Re: misc/115183: Can't delete certain files
Date: Fri, 03 Aug 2007 23:39:39 +0200

 John S. Strock wrote:
 >> Number:         115183
 >> Category:       misc
 >> Synopsis:       Can't delete certain files
 >> Confidential:   no
 >> Severity:       non-critical
 >> Priority:       low
 >> Responsible:    freebsd-bugs
 >> State:          open
 >> Quarter:        
 >> Keywords:       
 >> Date-Required:
 >> Class:          sw-bug
 >> Submitter-Id:   current-users
 >> Arrival-Date:   Fri Aug 03 21:30:04 GMT 2007
 >> Closed-Date:
 >> Last-Modified:
 >> Originator:     John S. Strock
 >> Release:        6.2
 >> Organization:
 > Bridgerland Applied Technology College
 >> Environment:
 > FreeBSD Server-2.BATC-IT.local 6.2-RELEASE FreeBSD 6.2-RELEASE #0: Tue Feb  6 22:42:34 MST 2007     root at Server-2.BATC-IT.local:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/Server-2  i386
 >> Description:
 > I can create files with a leading hyphens, for example "-r" or "-rabbit", by either copying a file (i.e. "cp testfile -r") or opening vi and and then saving with the filename "-r".  But I can't delete these files.  Each command I use think's the "-r" is an option rather than a file so I get an error.
 >> How-To-Repeat:
 > Create a file with a leading hyphen either one of two ways (that I've tried anyway).
 > 
 > 1) Starting vi, then saving the file with a leading hyphen.  i.e. "-rabbit".
 > 
 > 2) Copy another file.  i.e. "cp myfile -rabbit"
 >> Fix:
 > The folder that has the hyphenated filenames can be deleted, but I'm not sure how to delete the filenames directly (i.e you don't want to delete the folder, just the file).
 > 
 >> Release-Note:
 
 
 Hello,
 
 The solution might be to use rm ./-rabbit in the directory containing
 the 'offending file'. This most often works with files like this.
 
 Note that this is not a PR ticket worth, but a general support question,
 i will close the PR in question. Please consider using
 http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions/ the next
 time you have a question like this.
 
 Thanks for using FreeBSD though!
 
 Cheers
 remko
 -- 
 Kind regards,
 
      Remko Lodder               ** remko at elvandar.org
      FreeBSD                    ** remko at FreeBSD.org
 
      /* Quis custodiet ipsos custodes */