How to delete a special directory

How to delete a special directory

[Mário Gamito]

Hi,

I've accidently created two directories: -f and -q

Now, i can't remove them with rm -rf -f -q
I get an error.

Any ideas ?

Warm Regards,
Mário Gamito
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Re: How to delete a special directory

[Scott Pack]

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M?rio Gamito [gamito@gmail.com] 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




S.
-- 


--------------------------------------------------
Scott Pack
spack@cs.ohio.edu

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Re: How to delete a special directory

[Karey Weston]

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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.

Cheers
wes


On 2/9/07 7:33 AM, "Scott Pack" <spack@cs.ohiou.edu> wrote:

> M?rio Gamito [gamito@gmail.com] 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
> 
> 
> 
> 
> S.

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Re: How to delete a special directory

[Glynn Clements]

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>

Re: How to delete a special directory

[Darío Mariani]

What about rm -rf "-r" "-f"?
If not, a file manager like Midnight Commander should do the trick.

On 2/9/07, Glynn Clements <glynn@gclements.plus.com> wrote:
>
> 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>
> -
> To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-admin" in
> the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
> More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
>

Re: How to delete a special directory

[Glynn Clements]

Darío Mariani 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.
> 
> What about rm -rf "-r" "-f"?

The same issue applies; the shell will simply "eat" the quotes before
passing the strings to "rm", which will interpret them as switches
rather than filenames.

Quotes and backslashes are shell syntax. They will help if the problem
is because the filename means something to the shell (e.g. a file
named "~" or "<" or "$foo"), but not if the filename means something
to the program (e.g. a file named "-f").

For that situation, you need to use "--" (which should work with any
program which uses getopt()), or the "./-f" trick.

-- 
Glynn Clements <glynn@gclements.plus.com>
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Re: How to delete a special directory

[Florian Klien]

On 09.02.2007, at 15:29, Mário Gamito 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.
>
> Any ideas ?

try: rm -rf -- -f -q

that should do it. with the double dash you end the commands for rm.

hth
florian
-- 
Florian Klien
student of Telematics, tutor for 'Introduction to Structured
Programming' and 'Software Development Practical Exercises'
at Graz university of technology.
"We have persistent objects, they're called files.",
  Ken Thompson


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Re: How to delete a special directory

[Mário Gamito]

Hi,

Thank you all for your answers.
Yhis did the trick :)

> /bin/rm -r -- ./-f ./-q

Warm regards,
Mário Gamito

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