[BLUG] directories named -

I posted the hint to @climagic just now about how you can use the
command:

cd -

This will take you to the previous directory you were in. I find this
very useful as a short cut to go back and forth. I thought then what
happens if you name a directory -. It turns out, you will have a lot of
trouble on the command line changing into such a named directory.

I talked to people on the #bash channel on freenode and they were also
surprised. Normally, you could use -- to a command in order to tell it
that "hey, the options are over with, the rest of the arguments are not
options", but

So here are a list of ways that don't work for getting into the -
directory. Unless of course your previous directory was the - directory:

cd -
cd -/
cd '-'
cd "-"
cd '\-'
cd "\-"
cd \-
cd \-/
cd \\-/ (Tries to go to a directory called \- (go figure)
cd -- -
cd -- -/

The following will work:

cd /full/path/to/-
cd ./-
cd ./-/
cd ~/to/- (if its a subdir of your homedir)

Of course, I was able to delete the empty - dir by simply running

rmdir -

Lesson learned, don't name directories -

--
Mark Krenz
Bloomington Linux Users Group
http://www.bloomingtonlinux.org/
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