Re: "rm" bug

[Paul Eggert]

address@hidden writes:

> I cannot remove files which beggins with "-"
> for example:
> -TRY_TO_REMOVE_THIS_FILE
> is this bug, or I don't know how to use "rm"?

The latter, but this comes up so often (I must have seen this reported
a hundred times...) that I thought I'd try to improve the diagnostic.
I installed this:

2005-08-29  Paul Eggert  <address@hidden>

        * NEWS: "rm -FOO" now suggests "rm ./-FOO" if the file "-FOO"
        exists and "-FOO" is not a valid option.
        * src/rm.c: Include lstat.h, quotearg.h.
        (diagnose_leading_hyphen): New function.
        (main): Use it.

Index: NEWS
===================================================================
RCS file: /fetish/cu/NEWS,v
retrieving revision 1.304
diff -p -u -r1.304 NEWS
--- NEWS        23 Aug 2005 16:39:01 -0000      1.304
+++ NEWS        29 Aug 2005 21:11:54 -0000
@@ -191,6 +191,9 @@ GNU coreutils NEWS                      
   If stdin is a terminal, nohup now redirects it from /dev/null to
   prevent the command from tying up an OpenSSH session after you logout.
 
+  "rm -FOO" now suggests "rm ./-FOO" if the file "-FOO" exists and
+  "-FOO" is not a valid option.
+
   stat -f -c %S outputs the fundamental block size (used for block counts).
   stat -f's default output format has been changed to output this size as well.
   stat -f recognizes file systems of type XFS and JFS
Index: src/rm.c
===================================================================
RCS file: /fetish/cu/src/rm.c,v
retrieving revision 1.134
diff -p -u -r1.134 rm.c
--- src/rm.c    14 May 2005 07:58:37 -0000      1.134
+++ src/rm.c    29 Aug 2005 21:11:54 -0000
@@ -51,7 +51,9 @@
 #include "system.h"
 #include "dirname.h"
 #include "error.h"
+#include "lstat.h"
 #include "quote.h"
+#include "quotearg.h"
 #include "remove.h"
 #include "root-dev-ino.h"
 
@@ -95,6 +97,33 @@ static struct option const long_opts[] =
   {NULL, 0, NULL, 0}
 };
 
+/* Advise the user about invalid usages like "rm -foo" if the file
+   "-foo" exists, assuming ARGC and ARGV are as with `main'.  */
+
+static void
+diagnose_leading_hyphen (int argc, char **argv)
+{
+  /* OPTIND is unreliable, so iterate through the arguments looking
+     for a file name that looks like an option.  */
+  int i;
+
+  for (i = 1; i < argc; i++)
+    {
+      char const *arg = argv[i];
+      struct stat st;
+
+      if (arg[0] == '-' && arg[1] && lstat (arg, &st) == 0)
+       {
+         fprintf (stderr,
+                  _("Try `%s ./%s' to remove the file %s.\n"),
+                  argv[0],
+                  quotearg_n_style (1, shell_quoting_style, arg),
+                  quote (arg));
+         break;
+       }
+    }
+}
+
 void
 usage (int status)
 {
@@ -222,6 +251,7 @@ main (int argc, char **argv)
        case_GETOPT_HELP_CHAR;
        case_GETOPT_VERSION_CHAR (PROGRAM_NAME, AUTHORS);
        default:
+         diagnose_leading_hyphen (argc, argv);
          usage (EXIT_FAILURE);
        }
     }