|
UnixReview.com
May 2007
Shell Corner: Littera Delenda Est
Hosted by Ed Schaefer
In March, Sys Admin published our "Miscellaneous Unix Tips: Answering Novice
Shell Questions" article. One of our tips described deleting a file named
"-". Readers Leon Schutte, Stewart Ravenhall, Andy Bach, Robin
Wakefield, and Royce Williams gently took us to task for not mentioning the
judicious use of the dash with the rm command. Since John and I regret the
oversight, I include the gist of their email:
Using -- indicates no further command options: rm -- -
Using - explicitly marks the end of command line options so
everything after is considered a file: rm - -
Both commands work our Solaris 9 box. Again, we apologize.
Reader Royce Williams went on to state that his sys admin experience with
file names with funny characters has left him scarred. As part of the healing
experience, Royce presents Part 1 of "Removal of Files With Unusual Characters
in Their Filenames".
Littera Delenda Est: On the Removal of Files with Unusual Characters
in Their Filenames, Part One
by Royce Williams
To set the stage for this article, a little bit of history is in order.
|
