Rename Files That Start With a Special Character
Suppose you find that you have a file with a special character and you want to delete it:
$ ls
-badfile.txt PrintHood reg57.txt
Favorites Recent scripts
$ rm -badfile.txt
rm: invalid option -- 'b'
Try 'rm ./-badfile.txt' to remove the file '-badfile.txt'.
Try 'rm --help' for more information.
$ ls *.txt
ls: invalid option -- 'e'
Try 'ls --help' for more information.
First, find the inode of the file by using
ls -i on the command line:
$ ls -i
54804119 -badfile.txt 56634824 PrintHood
56634825 Recent 56634807 Favorites
54804251 reg57.txt 56634833 scripts
The “-i” flag will display the file’s inode:
54804119
-badfile.txt
The inode for the “bad” file is 54804119. Once the inode is identified, use the find command to rename the file:
$ find . -inum 54804119 -exec mv {} NewName \;
$ ls NewName
NewName
Now you can delete it.
$ rm NewName