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Deleting directory with leading hyphen in name

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# 1  
Old 09-14-2016
Deleting directory with leading hyphen in name
I asked this question last month in Stack Exchange (linux - delete directory with leading hyphen - Server Fault) and none of the answers supplied worked.

I have somehow created a directory with a leading hyphen and cannot get rid of it.

Code:
[root]# ls -li | grep p
2621441 drwxr-xr-x.   2 root root  4096 May  7  2015 cgroup
      3 drwxr-xr-x   19 root root  3700 Sep 14 07:11 dev
1572865 drwxr-xr-x. 101 root root 12288 Sep 14 07:11 etc
  11256 drwxr-xr-x    2 root root     0 Sep 14 07:11 misc
  11259 drwxr-xr-x    2 root root     0 Sep 14 07:11 net
2359297 drwxr-xr-x.   5 root root  4096 Aug 25 11:36 opt
1835010 drwxr-xr-x.   2 root root  4096 Aug 25 10:14 –p
      1 dr-xr-xr-x   96 root root     0 Sep 14 07:11 proc
1179649 dr-xr-x---.   2 root root  4096 Sep 14 07:23 root
      1 dr-xr-xr-x   13 root root     0 Sep 14 07:11 sys
 393217 drwxrwxrwt.   3 root root  4096 Sep 14 07:11 tmp
[root]# find . -inum 1835010
./–p
find: `./proc/3123/task/3123/fd/5': No such file or directory
find: `./proc/3123/task/3123/fdinfo/5': No such file or directory
find: `./proc/3123/fd/5': No such file or directory
find: `./proc/3123/fdinfo/5': No such file or directory
[root]# rmdir -- -p
rmdir: failed to remove `-p': No such file or directory
[root]# find . -type d -name '-p' -delete
[root]# ls -li | grep p
2621441 drwxr-xr-x.   2 root root  4096 May  7  2015 cgroup
      3 drwxr-xr-x   19 root root  3700 Sep 14 07:11 dev
1572865 drwxr-xr-x. 101 root root 12288 Sep 14 07:11 etc
  11256 drwxr-xr-x    2 root root     0 Sep 14 07:11 misc
  11259 drwxr-xr-x    2 root root     0 Sep 14 07:11 net
2359297 drwxr-xr-x.   5 root root  4096 Aug 25 11:36 opt
1835010 drwxr-xr-x.   2 root root  4096 Aug 25 10:14 –p
      1 dr-xr-xr-x   96 root root     0 Sep 14 07:11 proc
1179649 dr-xr-x---.   2 root root  4096 Sep 14 07:23 root
      1 dr-xr-xr-x   13 root root     0 Sep 14 07:11 sys
 393217 drwxrwxrwt.   3 root root  4096 Sep 14 07:11 tmp
[root]#
[root]# find . -inum 1835010 -exec rm -Rf {} \;
find: `./–p': No such file or directory
find: `./proc/3138/task/3138/fd/5': No such file or directory
find: `./proc/3138/task/3138/fdinfo/5': No such file or directory
find: `./proc/3138/fd/5': No such file or directory
find: `./proc/3138/fdinfo/5': No such file or directory
[root]#

# 2  
Old 09-14-2016
What about all the other approaches given in that link (and the ones in there)?

Could it be there's a space in the file name after the -p?

One RISKY approach would be to interactively remove ALL files, saying "No" to all but the target one.
This User Gave Thanks to RudiC For This Post:
jim mcnamara
# 3  
Old 09-14-2016
Removing the file should not be a problem...
If you use Bash, once you type "rm ./\-" press tab

Code:
$ ls -al
total 500
drwxr-xr-x   2 oracle dba    4096 Sep 14 09:36 .
drwxrwxrwt. 15 root   root 503808 Sep 14 09:36 ..
$ touch ./\ \-p
$ touch ./\-p
$ ls -al
total 500
drwxr-xr-x   2 oracle dba    4096 Sep 14 09:37 .
drwxrwxrwt. 15 root   root 503808 Sep 14 09:36 ..
-rw-r--r--   1 oracle dba       0 Sep 14 09:37  -p
-rw-r--r--   1 oracle dba       0 Sep 14 09:37 -p
$ rm ./\-p
$ rm ./\ \-p
$ ls -al
total 500
drwxr-xr-x   2 oracle dba    4096 Sep 14 09:37 .
drwxrwxrwt. 15 root   root 503808 Sep 14 09:36 ..

# 4  
Old 09-14-2016
I'm not sure what happened, but when I logged back on to retry and better document results, the directory was gone. The only thing I can figure is that the final

Code:
find . -inum 1835010 -exec rm -Rf {} \;

(last command shown in my original post) actually deleted the directory in spite of the error msgs. I just took the errors at face value and didn't run another 'ls' command.



Moderator's Comments:
Mod Comment
Please wrap all code, files, input & output/errors in CODE tags.
It makes it far easier to read an preserves leading/multiple spaces for indentation or fixed width data.
Last edited by rbatte1; 09-14-2016 at 12:27 PM.. Reason: Added CODE tags
# 5  
Old 09-14-2016
Quote:
Originally Posted by edstevens
I'm not sure what happened, but when I logged back on to retry and better document results, the directory was gone.
Your command indeed delted the directory. The error message came from the fact that find was trying to recurse (per default it looks in subdirectories) and because the first hit removed already the complete directory the subsequent attempt to change into it failed.

The reason why perhaps your usual rm command failed was because "-p" was interpreted as an (invalid) option instead of a filename. This should have worked:

Code:
rm -rf "./-p"

I hope this helps.

bakunin
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