A convention for -file

[Moderator, John Quarterman]

From: seismo!hadron!jsdy at sally.utexas.edu (Joseph S. D. Yao)
Date: Tue, 4 Nov 86 23:13:22 est
Organization: Hadron, Inc., Fairfax, VA

In article <6197 at ut-sally.UUCP>:
>From: seismo!unido!exunido!hmm (Hans-Martin Mosner)
>Date: Sat, 1 Nov 86 03:10:54 +0100
>					 ...  So if I happen to have a file
>"-rf" in my home directory and do a "rm *f", I'm out of luck :-)
>I have no solution for this, though...

At least two others have mentioned that something like ./*f does
wonders (if you are aware that it's needed).  My question is, does
anyone have a need for files that start with '-'?  Or is an ounce
of prevention (not using such files) still worth a pound of cure?
(Ignore troff font files: I try to.)

Side note:  the Instructional WorkBench (IWB), in its Unix(R)
Fundamentals course, makes specific note that one should avoid
making files starting with '+' or '-'.  It makes this the specific
subject of one of its programmed-learning questions.
-- 

	Joe Yao		hadron!jsdy at seismo.{CSS.GOV,ARPA,UUCP}
			jsdy at hadron.COM (not yet domainised)

Volume-Number: Volume 8, Number 40