I just noticed that I have a file called ~ in my ~-directory.
$ ls -la ~
...
-rw-r----- 1 x1 x1 733962240 Mar 1 17:55 ~
...
Any idea how I can mv or rm it?
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Try to delete it by i-node.– gronostajJun 19, 2013 at 5:25
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4 Answers
The pretty much ultimate solution when it comes to files that can't be deleted by normal means:
ls -il
The first column will show the inode number of the files.
find . -inum [inode-number] -exec rm -i {} \;
This will delete the file with the specified inode-number after verification.
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This worked. Perhaps the the solution by rici is good too, but I didn't try. Thanks a lot!– scrrrJun 19, 2013 at 7:46
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Yes, rici's answer is good too. And I think it's better because it's simpler. Jun 20, 2013 at 4:51
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nice, +1. I changed your answer to use
-deleteinstead of-exec, then realized that you were usingrm -iwhich is a good idea so I rolled back. Sorry.– terdonJun 26, 2013 at 23:21 -
Don't worry. Always glad when somebody deems my answers worthy of their time :)– SqueezyJun 29, 2013 at 22:19
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You should be able to refer to that file as ~/~ (without quotes) because tilde-expansion only applies the the tilde (~) at the very beginning of the word.
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20also, going to the folder and
rm ./~, for the same reason you said Jun 19, 2013 at 7:10 -
@CarlosCampderrós consider making that an answer. I would deem it as the "best" and most straightforward solution, compared to other answers since
./~literally means "a file or folder named~in the current directory". There are no hacks like escape characters or inode references.– ADTCJan 11, 2018 at 17:36 -
@ADTC: in defence of my answer, it does not require changing the CWD, whereas using
./~does. After five years, my memory is a little fuzzy, but I think that is why I suggested~/~rather than the more normal./~: The question specifically refers to "a file named~in [OP's] home directory"; not "in the current directory".– riciJan 11, 2018 at 18:20 -
@rici That makes sense, and in the context of the question it would be appropriate. But I do like to see answers that are general, or speak generally first before expounding more to the question's specific case. That's my defense :D– ADTCJan 12, 2018 at 0:31
Quote it (rm '~') or escape it (rm \~).
It's always either of those (also for e.g. $), or add -- to prevent the file name from being interpreted as argument: rm -- -i removes the file named -i; also useful for rm -- * when you want to delete all files in the current directory: No accidental rm -f * just because a file is named like that.
answered Jun 19, 2013 at 4:46
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Hm, no that doesn't seem to work.. I tried the single quotes, the escaping and backticks.. he doesn't pick up the file. Says either it doesn't exist or interprets ~ as the home-directory..– scrrrJun 19, 2013 at 5:08
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@scrrr Glad your problem is solved, but now I want to know why bash escapes don't work the same way on your system as it does on mine. Jun 25, 2013 at 21:28
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1Careful.
--only stops the following arguments being interpreted as parameters - it doesn't prevent the shell from performing its expansion (e.g.*), which is what's happening here. (I know you suggested it as an alternative for other situations, but a warning would be good.)– BobJan 30, 2014 at 0:17
Just to be safe I tried this in mac catalina:
mv '~' '~_bkp'
you can change directory to check the contents
cd '~_bkp' ls
If its empty simply 'remove'
rm -rf '~_bkp'
'rmdir' can be used too to remove the empty directory
