Deleting any file under Unix/Linux is usually a simple matter of using the “rm” command. Some files are more stubborn. If the file name contains special characters, or begins with a dash (“-“), it can be hard to get rid of:

bash-4.2$ ls -l
total 0
-rw-rw-r--. 1 james james 0 Aug 25 14:46 -a
-rw-rw-r--. 1 james james 0 Aug 25 14:46 logfile
-rw-rw-r--. 1 james james 0 Aug 25 14:45 some'file
bash-4.2$ rm some'file
> bash: unexpected EOF while looking for matching `''
bash: syntax error: unexpected end of file

A Few Alternatives

One obvious solution is to use a GUI. Highlight the awkward file in any file manager, hit the delete key, and it’s gone. But GUIs aren’t available everywhere. You may have only shell access to a server, for example. Continue reading →