Handling names with leading dash in bash shell

Question

How can I handle (e.g. apply mv command) in a command shell the files with leading dash (-) in names? The command

mv -weirdfilename.zip normalfilename.zip

naturally accepts - at the beginning of a filename as an argument.

score 16 · Answer 1 · answered Aug 17 '16 at 10:56

16

Two ways:

-- indicates end of command options, so everything follows that are treated as arguments:
```
mv -- -weirdfilename.zip normalfilename.zip 
```

Use ./ to indicate a file name explicitly:

mv ./-weirdfilename.zip normalfilename.zip

answered Aug 17 '16 at 10:56

heemayl

2

It's worth noting that -- might not always work for just - as a file name since it might have special meaning (e.g. stdin/stdout) in some programs. – phk Aug 17 '16 at 12:54

1 Answers1