How to remove a file starting with hyphen "-"

Solution Verified - Updated -

Environment

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4, 5, 6, 7

Issue

  • Remove a file starting with Hyphen -
$ rm -test
rm: invalid option -- 't'

Resolution

  • To remove a file starting with - , for example -test, please use one of these commands:
#  rm -- -test

 # rm ./-test

Root Cause

  • Hyphen is used to specify options in most commands. A file with it's name starts with "-" can mislead the command's inteperation. As per rm man page, commands provided in resolution above can be applied to remove such files.

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