On 16.04.2022 00:17, hput wrote:

Running: Ubuntu 20.04 linux with bash

Some how I've managed to get a directory written with the name
`--head--'. Haven't been able to figure out how this got written.

It appears amongst a short list of other directories that are the
names of zfs snapshots.

The `--head--' critter is a directory with files and subdiretories in it. Or at
least that is how emacs sees it.

I want to see it with a simple `ls' or `ls -l' command. A few of what
I've tried:

are:
ls

'--head--'

\-\-head\-\-

[\-][\-]head[\-][\-]

That has drained my obviously less than skillful guesses.

showing the naming mistake in place:

cd /rhosts/.zfs/snapshot
ls -l
drwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 Apr 15 17:34 autosnap_2022-04-14_15:55:20_daily drwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 Apr 15 17:34 autosnap_2022-04-14_15:55:20_monthly drwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 Apr 15 17:34 autosnap_2022-04-14_15:55:20_weekly drwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 Apr 15 17:34 --head--

Can anyone offer something that actually works?

It's nothing to do with escaping. The tools called with such arguments considers it an option. To prevent that use the end-of-option marker as
in

ls -- --head--
rmdir -- --head--

etc.

Janis

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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Running: Ubuntu 20.04 linux with bash

Some how I've managed to get a directory written with the name
`--head--'. Haven't been able to figure out how this got written.

It appears amongst a short list of other directories that are the
names of zfs snapshots.

The `--head--' critter is a directory with files and subdiretories in it. Or at
least that is how emacs sees it.

I want to see it with a simple `ls' or `ls -l' command. A few of what
I've tried:

are:
ls

'--head--'

\-\-head\-\-

[\-][\-]head[\-][\-]

That has drained my obviously less than skillful guesses.


showing the naming mistake in place:

cd /rhosts/.zfs/snapshot
ls -l
drwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 Apr 15 17:34 autosnap_2022-04-14_15:55:20_daily drwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 Apr 15 17:34 autosnap_2022-04-14_15:55:20_monthly drwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 Apr 15 17:34 autosnap_2022-04-14_15:55:20_weekly drwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 Apr 15 17:34 --head--


Can anyone offer something that actually works?

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On Sat, 16 Apr 2022 00:26:28 +0200, Janis Papanagnou wrote:

On 16.04.2022 00:17, hput wrote:

Running: Ubuntu 20.04 linux with bash

Some how I've managed to get a directory written with the name
`--head--'. Haven't been able to figure out how this got written.

It appears amongst a short list of other directories that are the
names of zfs snapshots.

The `--head--' critter is a directory with files and subdiretories in it. Or at
least that is how emacs sees it.

I want to see it with a simple `ls' or `ls -l' command. A few of what
I've tried:

are:
ls

'--head--'

\-\-head\-\-

[\-][\-]head[\-][\-]

That has drained my obviously less than skillful guesses.


showing the naming mistake in place:

cd /rhosts/.zfs/snapshot
ls -l
drwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 Apr 15 17:34 autosnap_2022-04-14_15:55:20_daily
drwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 Apr 15 17:34 autosnap_2022-04-14_15:55:20_monthly >> drwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 Apr 15 17:34 autosnap_2022-04-14_15:55:20_weekly
drwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 Apr 15 17:34 --head--


Can anyone offer something that actually works?

It's nothing to do with escaping. The tools called with such arguments considers it an option. To prevent that use the end-of-option marker as
in

ls -- --head--
rmdir -- --head--

alternately...
ls ./--head--
rmdir ./--head--



--
Lew Pitcher
"In Skills, We Trust"

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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hput <hputn3@zohomail.com> writes:

Running: Ubuntu 20.04 linux with bash

Some how I've managed to get a directory written with the name
`--head--'. Haven't been able to figure out how this got written.

It appears amongst a short list of other directories that are the
names of zfs snapshots.

The `--head--' critter is a directory with files and subdiretories in it. Or at
least that is how emacs sees it.

I want to see it with a simple `ls' or `ls -l' command. A few of what
I've tried:

are:
ls

'--head--'

\-\-head\-\-

[\-][\-]head[\-][\-]

That has drained my obviously less than skillful guesses.

showing the naming mistake in place:

cd /rhosts/.zfs/snapshot
ls -l
drwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 Apr 15 17:34 autosnap_2022-04-14_15:55:20_daily drwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 Apr 15 17:34 autosnap_2022-04-14_15:55:20_monthly drwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 Apr 15 17:34 autosnap_2022-04-14_15:55:20_weekly drwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 Apr 15 17:34 --head--

Can anyone offer something that actually works?

Others have suggested "ls -- --head--".

Another option is "ls ./--head--".

--
Keith Thompson (The_Other_Keith) Keith.S.Thompson+u@gmail.com
Working, but not speaking, for Philips
void Void(void) { Void(); } /* The recursive call of the void */

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On Fri, 15 Apr 2022 18:17:17 -0400, hput <hputn3@zohomail.com> wrote:

I want to see it with a simple `ls' or `ls -l' command. A few of what
I've tried:

$ tree -ifa
.
./--head--
./--head--/somefile
1 directory, 1 file

$ ls -l -- --head--
total 0
-rw-r--r-- 1 dave dave 0 Apr 15 18:24 somefile

I created the directory and file with ...
$ mkdir -- --head--
$ touch -- --head--/somefile

The "-- " indicates what follows is not to be parsed as an option.

Regards, Dave Hodgins

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hput <hputn3@zohomail.com>:

Running: Ubuntu 20.04 linux with bash

Some how I've managed to get a directory written with the name
`--head--'. Haven't been able to figure out how this got written.

[…]

I want to see it with a simple `ls' or `ls -l' command. A few of
what I've tried:

are:
ls

'--head--'

\-\-head\-\-

[\-][\-]head[\-][\-]

[…]

As Janis already pointed out, "ls" and most of the standard
utilities parse their argument list in the following manner:  They
look at each of its arguments, starting with the left most and
proceeding to the right:  If the argument starts with (at least) one
"-" then they consider it to be an option except when they are told
(see below) to not consider the remaining arguments as options.

In your use case "ls" would consider "--head--" as a (GNU long)
option.  In the case of a filename starting with a "-" that's a
problem (as you encountered).

But there is a remedy: the special option "--".  It tells the
utility, that all following arguments are not to be interpreted as
options, even if they look like an option, i. e. if they start with
a "-".

So the solution would be:  Before any non‐option arguments that you
supply to "ls" always put that special end‐of‐options‐option "--" into the argument list:

ls -- the filenames you want to specify …

or

ls -l -- the filenames you want to specify …

This end‐of‐options‐option doesn't do any harm should it be not necessary, but it helps avoiding such surprises.

It's become a habit of mine to always supply an
end‐of‐options‐option no matter whether I think it's necessary or
not.

For example, the command


ls -d [![:letter:]]*

will show all filenames in the current directory that don't start
with a letter or a ".".  If there happens to be a filename like
"--head--" it will be put into the argument list and interpreted as
an option.  Note:  If one looks at that command one might not know
whether in the current directory there happens to be a filename
"--head--".  That's why I wrote "no matter whether I /think/ it's
necessary or not".

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