How do I use shell commands with a directory that contains '-' like '-78059735'?

up vote
1
down vote

favorite

I have an external program that generates directories with strings that are negative integers. I am trying to use basic shell commands including cd and ls with this directory, for example:

cd -78059735

Understandably, this fails because this looks like command line options starting with -7.

-bash: cd: -7: invalid option

Similarly, these variations also fail:

cd "-78059735"
cd "-78059735"
cd '-78059735'
cd '-78059735'
cd -78059735

How do I interact with this troublesome directory through the shell?

asked 41 mins ago

mattm

1114

add a commentÂ |Â

up vote
1
down vote

favorite

I have an external program that generates directories with strings that are negative integers. I am trying to use basic shell commands including cd and ls with this directory, for example:

cd -78059735

Understandably, this fails because this looks like command line options starting with -7.

-bash: cd: -7: invalid option

Similarly, these variations also fail:

cd "-78059735"
cd "-78059735"
cd '-78059735'
cd '-78059735'
cd -78059735

How do I interact with this troublesome directory through the shell?

asked 41 mins ago

mattm

1114

add a commentÂ |Â

up vote
1
down vote

favorite

I have an external program that generates directories with strings that are negative integers. I am trying to use basic shell commands including cd and ls with this directory, for example:

cd -78059735

Understandably, this fails because this looks like command line options starting with -7.

-bash: cd: -7: invalid option

Similarly, these variations also fail:

cd "-78059735"
cd "-78059735"
cd '-78059735'
cd '-78059735'
cd -78059735

How do I interact with this troublesome directory through the shell?

asked 41 mins ago

mattm

1114

I have an external program that generates directories with strings that are negative integers. I am trying to use basic shell commands including cd and ls with this directory, for example:

cd -78059735

Understandably, this fails because this looks like command line options starting with -7.

-bash: cd: -7: invalid option

Similarly, these variations also fail:

cd "-78059735"
cd "-78059735"
cd '-78059735'
cd '-78059735'
cd -78059735

How do I interact with this troublesome directory through the shell?

bash shell escape-characters

asked 41 mins ago

mattm

1114

asked 41 mins ago

mattm

1114

asked 41 mins ago

mattm

1114

asked 41 mins ago

mattm

1114

asked 41 mins ago

mattm

1114

add a commentÂ |Â

2 Answers
2

active

oldest

votes

up vote
3
down vote

It is because the command cd treats the character followed by - as valid option flag for it to work. Since 7 is not a valid one for cd it is failing with the error you are seeing.

In such cases you can specify end of command line options by doing a double dash before the command name -- as below. The below command implies that the command line options for cd are complete and there are no other flags expected after --

cd -- -78059735/

You can even have other flags provided before -- which would work just fine. The below command for mkdir which takes an option -p to create a directory if it does not exist before works just fine with a string having -, provided you give an end of command line options flag right after -p

mkdir -p -- /tmp/-78059735
ls -d /tmp/*
/tmp/-78059735

rm command to delete a directory also works just fine as below

rm -vrf -- /tmp/-78059735
removed directory '/tmp/-78059735'

edited 24 mins ago

answered 30 mins ago

Inian

2,945822

add a commentÂ |Â

up vote
2
down vote

cd ./-78059735
ls ./-78059735

It works for me.

edited 18 mins ago

answered 31 mins ago

Gounou

663

New contributor

add a commentÂ |Â

Your Answer

StackExchange.ready(function()
var channelOptions =
tags: "".split(" "),
id: "106"
;
initTagRenderer("".split(" "), "".split(" "), channelOptions);

StackExchange.using("externalEditor", function()
// Have to fire editor after snippets, if snippets enabled
if (StackExchange.settings.snippets.snippetsEnabled)
StackExchange.using("snippets", function()
createEditor();
);

else
createEditor();

);

function createEditor()
StackExchange.prepareEditor(
heartbeatType: 'answer',
convertImagesToLinks: false,
noModals: false,
showLowRepImageUploadWarning: true,
reputationToPostImages: null,
bindNavPrevention: true,
postfix: "",
onDemand: true,
discardSelector: ".discard-answer"
,immediatelyShowMarkdownHelp:true
);

);

draft saved

draft discarded

StackExchange.ready(
function ()
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2funix.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f476180%2fhow-do-i-use-shell-commands-with-a-directory-that-contains-like-78059735%23new-answer', 'question_page');

);

Post as a guest

Name

2 Answers
2

active

oldest

votes

2 Answers
2

active

oldest

votes

up vote
3
down vote

It is because the command cd treats the character followed by - as valid option flag for it to work. Since 7 is not a valid one for cd it is failing with the error you are seeing.

cd -- -78059735/

mkdir -p -- /tmp/-78059735
ls -d /tmp/*
/tmp/-78059735

rm command to delete a directory also works just fine as below

rm -vrf -- /tmp/-78059735
removed directory '/tmp/-78059735'

edited 24 mins ago

answered 30 mins ago

Inian

2,945822

add a commentÂ |Â

up vote
3
down vote

It is because the command cd treats the character followed by - as valid option flag for it to work. Since 7 is not a valid one for cd it is failing with the error you are seeing.

cd -- -78059735/

mkdir -p -- /tmp/-78059735
ls -d /tmp/*
/tmp/-78059735

rm command to delete a directory also works just fine as below

rm -vrf -- /tmp/-78059735
removed directory '/tmp/-78059735'

edited 24 mins ago

answered 30 mins ago

Inian

2,945822

add a commentÂ |Â

up vote
3
down vote

It is because the command cd treats the character followed by - as valid option flag for it to work. Since 7 is not a valid one for cd it is failing with the error you are seeing.

cd -- -78059735/

mkdir -p -- /tmp/-78059735
ls -d /tmp/*
/tmp/-78059735

rm command to delete a directory also works just fine as below

rm -vrf -- /tmp/-78059735
removed directory '/tmp/-78059735'

edited 24 mins ago

answered 30 mins ago

Inian

2,945822

It is because the command cd treats the character followed by - as valid option flag for it to work. Since 7 is not a valid one for cd it is failing with the error you are seeing.

cd -- -78059735/

mkdir -p -- /tmp/-78059735
ls -d /tmp/*
/tmp/-78059735

rm command to delete a directory also works just fine as below

rm -vrf -- /tmp/-78059735
removed directory '/tmp/-78059735'

edited 24 mins ago

answered 30 mins ago

Inian

2,945822

edited 24 mins ago

answered 30 mins ago

Inian

2,945822

answered 30 mins ago

Inian

2,945822

answered 30 mins ago

Inian

2,945822

add a commentÂ |Â

up vote
2
down vote

cd ./-78059735
ls ./-78059735

It works for me.

edited 18 mins ago

answered 31 mins ago

Gounou

663

New contributor

add a commentÂ |Â

up vote
2
down vote

cd ./-78059735
ls ./-78059735

It works for me.

edited 18 mins ago

answered 31 mins ago

Gounou

663

New contributor

add a commentÂ |Â

up vote
2
down vote

cd ./-78059735
ls ./-78059735

It works for me.

edited 18 mins ago

answered 31 mins ago

Gounou

663

New contributor

cd ./-78059735
ls ./-78059735

It works for me.

edited 18 mins ago

answered 31 mins ago

Gounou

663

New contributor

edited 18 mins ago

answered 31 mins ago

Gounou

663

New contributor

answered 31 mins ago

Gounou

663

answered 31 mins ago

Gounou

663

New contributor

Gounou is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.

add a commentÂ |Â

draft saved

draft discarded

draft saved

draft discarded

Post as a guest

Name

Search This Blog

Iyfjky