Question

I have some files on my Unix machine that start with

 -- 

e.g. --testings.html

If I try to remove it I get the following error:

cb0$ rm --testings.html rm: illegal option -- - usage: rm [-f | -i] [-dPRrvW] file ...        unlink file 

I tried

rm '--testings.html' || rm '--testings.html'  

but nothing works.

How can I remove such files on terminal?

Answer 1

rm -- --testings.html 

The -- option tells rm to treat all further arguments as file names, not as options, even if they start with -.

This isn’t particular to the rm command. The getopt function implements it, and many (all?) UNIX-style commands treat it the same way: -- terminates option processing, and anything after it is a regular argument.

http://www.gnu.org/software/hello/manual/libc/Using-Getopt.html#Using-Getopt