How to open a directory contains "-"?

Question

How can I open a directory via PUTTY that contains -?

For example the name of dir is:

some-thing-dir

cd /some-thing-dir not working.

possible duplicate of [How to "cd" into a directory with this name "-2"?](http://serverfault.com/questions/462739/how-to-cd-into-a-directory-with-this-name-2) — Michael Hampton, May 14 '13 at 13:41

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered May 14 '13 at 10:56

1

Well, it should be working.... what error message do you get? Nevertheless you can try to escape the dash:

cd /some\-thing\-dir

answered May 14 '13 at 10:56

Pascal Schmiel

for `/home$ cd /movie\-economics\-lawyer\-science` I get `-bash: cd: /movie-economics-lawyer-science: No such file or directory` – user2301881 May 14 '13 at 10:59
ls -ld /movie-economics-lawyer-science, please – dawud May 14 '13 at 11:00
The directory is inside your home directory? then you should not use the first slash because that means it is an absolute path. you can use "cd /home/movie/some-dir" or: "cd /home/movie; cd some-dir" – Pascal Schmiel May 14 '13 at 11:01
ls -ld gives `drwxr-x--- 10 movie-economics-lawyer-science movie-economics-lawyer-science 4096 May 14 10:49 /home/movie-economics-lawyer-science` – user2301881 May 14 '13 at 11:04
cd /home/movie-economics-lawyer-science – Pascal Schmiel May 14 '13 at 11:04
And `"cd /home/movie/some-dir` gives me : Permission denied :o – user2301881 May 14 '13 at 11:05
so then the user that created the directory was not you and it does not have the +x flag for all users set - try to access it as "root" or set the correct permissions – Pascal Schmiel May 14 '13 at 11:06

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered May 14 '13 at 11:02

1

You should try e.g. cd ./home\-movie\-economics or perhaps cd 'home-movie-economics'

answered May 14 '13 at 11:02

vonbrand

what's the point in escaping the dashes in the first example and not escaping them in the second one? ;) – Pascal Schmiel May 14 '13 at 11:04
@PascalSchmiel, the apostrophes quote. – vonbrand May 14 '13 at 11:05
ahh, don't get it, sorry :) – Pascal Schmiel May 14 '13 at 11:06

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered May 14 '13 at 11:01

0

Just quote it.

cd /'some-thing-dir'

answered May 14 '13 at 11:01

cuonglm

3 Answers3