How to use commands on files that start with "-"

Question

I'm having trouble using using commands on files that start with "-" (i.e. -file 1, -file 2). It is giving me invalid option errors.

For example:

cp '-file 1' '-file 2'

However, echo still works.

echo "Hello World" > '-file 2'

How can I make it so that the "-" does not signify that I'm choosing an option?

Essentially a duplicate of How do I delete a file whose name begins with “-”? — G-Man Says 'Reinstate Monica', Oct 17 '14 at 01:09

score 5 · Accepted Answer · edited Oct 17 '14 at 00:23

5

Most POSIX utilities specify that -- can be used to terminate option arguments:

cp -- '-file 1' '-file 2'

You can also reference the current directory using the . hard link to the current directory:

cp './-file 1' './-file 2'

edited Oct 17 '14 at 00:23

peterph

answered Oct 17 '14 at 00:20

Chris Down

1

A third option: the leading hyphen isn't mistaken for the beginning of an option if the word is expected as the argument to a preceding option. For example: in grep -e -foo file.txt, the -e option takes an argument, so grep doesn't expect -foo to be an option. – chepner Oct 17 '14 at 02:36

1 Answers1