How do I remove a file whose name begins with a "-" ?

How do I remove a file whose name begins with a "-" ?

Figure out some way to name the file so that it doesn't begin
with a dash. The simplest answer is to use

rm ./-filename

(assuming "-filename" is in the current directory, of course.)
This method of avoiding the interpretation of the "-" works with
other commands too.

Many commands, particularly those that have been written to use
the "getopt(3)" argument parsing routine, accept a "--" argument
which means "this is the last option, anything after this is not
an option", so your version of rm might handle "rm -- -filename".
Some versions of rm that don't use getopt() treat a single "-"
in the same way, so you can also try "rm - -filename".


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