Problem removing a file

[Eric Siegerman]

In article <836 at ttrde.UUCP> pfales at ttrde.UUCP (Peter Fales) writes:
> In article <695 at flatline.UUCP>, erict at flatline.UUCP (The Evil Mel Fujitsu) writes:
> > Ok, I've really done it now.  I've created, in my home directory,
> > a file by the name of:
> > -ef
> [...]
> 1) ls -i  (to get the inode number of  the file.  Call it N)
> 2) find . -inum N -print -exec rm {} \;
>
> It works on every problem I have had:
> [...]
> Disclaimer:  Your mileage may vary.

Your mileage might in fact be *greater* than expected:  if you
originally messed yourself up by

    ln good_file garbage_name

the recommended approach will happily remove both links to your
file!  The simplest approach to erict's specific problem (while
admittedly not a general solution) is

    rm ./-ef
-- 
Eric Siegerman, Toronto, Ont.
eks at kneller.UUCP,  eric at becker.UUCP,  ...!utzoo!mnetor!becker!kneller!eks