Removing files called --exclude=*.xdr

Question

Somehow I must have mistyped a command, because now I have files named --exclude=.xdr and --exclude=.h5 in one of my directories. I want to delete them. Only problem is whenever I do something like:

rm --exclude=*.xdr

it thinks I'm passing an argument to the rm command. I've tried encasing in single and double quotes but it still didn't work. How can I delete these files?

Cheers

`rm -- --exclude=*.xdr` the rm man page will tell you what -- does — nos, Oct 25 '13 at 10:20
possible duplicate of [How to remove files starting with double hyphen?](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/706196/how-to-remove-files-starting-with-double-hyphen) — dogbane, Oct 25 '13 at 10:27
Not sure, I think I was trying to tarball a directory but obviously did a typo or something. — user1654183, Oct 25 '13 at 13:09

score 2 · Accepted Answer · edited Oct 25 '13 at 18:11

2

Flag interpretation is done based purely on text. Any string that doesn't start with a - is not a flag. The path to a file in the local directory can start with ./ (the . means "current directory").

I'd also recommend reading the man page for rm, as that explicitly lists two different ways of doing exactly this.

rm -- --blah
rm ./--blah

edited Oct 25 '13 at 18:11

that other guy

116,971
11
170
194

answered Oct 25 '13 at 10:23

Vatine

20,782
4
54
70

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 25 '13 at 10:28

1

 rm -- "--exclude=.xdr"

Use this command for delete that file

answered Oct 25 '13 at 10:28

Kalanidhi

4,902
27
42

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Oct 25 '13 at 10:22

0

What about using find:

find . -type f -name "--exclude*" -exec rm {} \; -print

answered Oct 25 '13 at 10:22

mguijarr

7,641
6
45
72

Removing files called --exclude=*.xdr

3 Answers3