Sometimes we have to remove files with weird names, like “-h”. rm -h does not work because the shell sees “-h” as a command option.
So, how can we delete these file? Simple: by it’s inode.
A file’s inode can be found with ls -li or stat.
Every file has an unique inode (big number). The inode is like the user’s UID.
$ ls -li
428316 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 2012-05-31 22:21 -h
The inode is the 6 digits number from the first column of the ls -li output.
Finding a file’s inode with stat:
$ stat -- -h | grep -i inode
Device: 801h/2049d Inode: 428316 Links: 1
Now, I will delete -h by it’s inode with the following command:
find . -inum INODENUMBER -exec rm -i {} +
Type y for yes and n for no, in order to delete the file, or not.
$ find . -inum 428316 -exec rm -i {} +
rm: remove regular empty file `./-h'? y
ls -l
total 0
The -h file can also be deleted with rm – – “-h” . (there is no space between the two minus characters)
$ ls
-h
$ rm -- "-h"