Re: How to delete a special directory

[Glynn Clements <glynn@gclements.plus.com>]

Karey Weston wrote:

> >> I've accidently created two directories: -f and -q
> >> 
> >> Now, i can't remove them with rm -rf -f -q
> >> I get an error.
> >> 
> > 
> > Try giving the full path name to the directory.  Such as,
> > rm -rdf ./-f ./-q
> 
> Try this (works with bash on BSD...Linux should be the same)
> 
>  rm -rf \-f \-q
> 
> Make sure you are in bash...the backslashes escape the - and take it as a
> literal.

That won't work. The dashes are significant to "rm", not the shell. 
The backslashes will be removed by the shell, and won't affect the
arguments which "rm" sees.

I have no idea why this would work on BSD; bash is bash, regardless of
the underlying OS.

-- 
Glynn Clements <glynn@gclements.plus.com>