Comments on: Linux command editing examples using cat, ed, and sed

By: dodobrain

dodobrain — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 14:57:44 +0000

err.. can’t preview/edit posts. Anyway, for the copy/pasta people:
cat -- -abc.txt

By: dodobrain

dodobrain — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 14:56:10 +0000

Anil,

You use the option terminator for exactly this reason, i.e. non-option arguments have prefixed ‘-’ char:

cat — -abc.txt

*None* of the above poster’s possible solutions will work, as the ‘-’ char will persist even after quoting, escaping or globbing. If you aren’t convinced, you can try them out. The option terminator ‘–’ (two hyphens) works on almost all GNU cmdline tools.

By: jose martin

jose martin — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 09:02:34 +0000

Atleast one among the following should work
cat ?abc.txt
cat “-abc.txt”
cat \-abc.txt

Else you may rename that file to something normal by opening it in vi with command like:
vi *abc.txt and when the required file opens in the vi, save it with a normal name.

By: Anil Alpati

Anil Alpati — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 14:35:48 +0000

I am facing problem while checking the text file in linux which is starting with minus sign

Example:
cat “-abc.txt”

Please send me the reply at your earliest.

Thanks,
Anil.Alpati