Cannot delete invisible files on OSX

Question

I have no items on my desktop in finder. When I enter the "ls" command in terminal at my desktop, two mysterious invisible files pop up:

~$Revised_December_EOM_Report-2.xlsx
~$Revised December EOM Report-2.xlsx

I've tried "sudo rm -rf "(both file names)", but still can't seem to remove them. I tried with and without quotes. I also tried the names without the ~$ prefix. Any ideas?

Answer 1

You need to escape the $ sign:

rm ~\$Revised_December_EOM_Report-2.xlsx

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Alternatively, enable displaying hidden files in Finder by editing its defaults and delete from the GUI.

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE
killall Finder