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Top Forums UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers How to copy/move to a file with a special character as the 1st char in the filename? Post 302265902 by sqa777 on Monday 8th of December 2008 07:46:45 PM
Old 12-08-2008
How to copy/move to a file with a special character as the 1st char in the filename?

I am trying to create files with special characters in its filenames for testing purposes. This is on a Linux RHEL4 but this should also be applicable on a Unix shell.

I am able to create files with special characters in the filenames...e.g.

cp -pv foo.gif \*special.gif
cp -pv foo.gif \ blank.space.start.gif

I cannot create this filename:

-special.filename.txt

The cp or mv command thinks that the '-' character specifies a flag.

I've tried the following commands:

cp -pv foo.bar \-special.txt (this results in a filename of '\-special.txt')
cp -pv foo.bar '-special.txt' (cp thinks '-special.txt' is an invalid option)
cp -pv foo.bar '\-special.txt' (the result is the same as \-special.txt)

This might be a simple question but does anyone know how to create a file, either by cp or mv, with a filename that has the dash '-' character as the first character in the filename?
 

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dos2unix(1)						      General Commands Manual						       dos2unix(1)

NAME
dos2unix - DOS/MAC to UNIX text file format converter SYNOPSYS
dos2unix [options] [-c convmode] [-o file ...] [-n infile outfile ...] Options: [-hkqV] [--help] [--keepdate] [--quiet] [--version] DESCRIPTION
This manual page documents dos2unix, the program that converts plain text files in DOS/MAC format to UNIX format. OPTIONS
The following options are available: -h --help Print online help. -k --keepdate Keep the date stamp of output file same as input file. -q --quiet Quiet mode. Suppress all warning and messages. -V --version Prints version information. -c --convmode convmode Sets conversion mode. Simulates dos2unix under SunOS. -o --oldfile file ... Old file mode. Convert the file and write output to it. The program default to run in this mode. Wildcard names may be used. -n --newfile infile outfile ... New file mode. Convert the infile and write output to outfile. File names must be given in pairs and wildcard names should NOT be used or you WILL lost your files. EXAMPLES
Get input from stdin and write output to stdout. dos2unix Convert and replace a.txt. Convert and replace b.txt. dos2unix a.txt b.txt dos2unix -o a.txt b.txt Convert and replace a.txt in ASCII conversion mode. Convert and replace b.txt in ISO conversion mode. Convert c.txt from Mac to Unix ascii format. dos2unix a.txt -c iso b.txt dos2unix -c ascii a.txt -c iso b.txt dos2unix -c mac a.txt b.txt Convert and replace a.txt while keeping original date stamp. dos2unix -k a.txt dos2unix -k -o a.txt Convert a.txt and write to e.txt. dos2unix -n a.txt e.txt Convert a.txt and write to e.txt, keep date stamp of e.txt same as a.txt. dos2unix -k -n a.txt e.txt Convert and replace a.txt. Convert b.txt and write to e.txt. dos2unix a.txt -n b.txt e.txt dos2unix -o a.txt -n b.txt e.txt Convert c.txt and write to e.txt. Convert and replace a.txt. Convert and replace b.txt. Convert d.txt and write to f.txt. dos2unix -n c.txt e.txt -o a.txt b.txt -n d.txt f.txt DIAGNOSTICS
BUGS
The program does not work properly under MSDOS in stdio processing mode. If you know why is that so, please tell me. AUTHORS
Benjamin Lin - <blin@socs.uts.edu.au> Bernd Johannes Wuebben (mac2unix mode) <wuebben@kde.org> MISCELLANY
Tested environment: Linux 1.2.0 with GNU C 2.5.8 SunOS 4.1.3 with GNU C 2.6.3 MS-DOS 6.20 with Borland C++ 4.02 Suggestions and bug reports are welcome. SEE ALSO
unix2dos(1) mac2unix(1) 1995.03.31 dos2unix v3.0 dos2unix(1)
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