When a file starts off with --, it is unable to cope with wildcards.. For instance.. edit a file named ----gfhgfh with any text editing tool.. then do ls * in that dir.. ls * ls: unrecognized option `-----gfhgfh' ls however works, so my feeling is that it is being dealt with in the code, but in the wrong place.. I can help develop a patch if needed.. it should also be strongly noted that to the best of my knowledge, I dont think tools like rm are capable of deleting such files easily either, which on servers could allow l33t haxors to create directories like this and make people be unable to easily delete them Reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: 1. edit a file named ---anything in any text editing tool 2. in terminal, type ls * in that dir 3. :( Actual Results: ls * ls: unrecognized option `---anything' Expected Results: ls * ---anything Gentoo Base System version 1.6.8 Portage 2.0.51-r3 (default-linux/x86/2004.3, gcc-3.3.4, glibc-2.3.4.20040808-r1, 2.6.9 i686) ================================================================= System uname: 2.6.9 i686 Pentium III (Coppermine) distcc 2.16 i686-pc-linux-gnu (protocols 1 and 2) (default port 3632) [enabled] Autoconf: sys-devel/autoconf-2.59-r5 Automake: sys-devel/automake-1.8.5-r1 Binutils: sys-devel/binutils-2.14.90.0.8-r1 Headers: sys-kernel/linux26-headers-2.6.8.1-r1 Libtools: sys-devel/libtool-1.5.2-r7 ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="x86 ~x86" AUTOCLEAN="yes" CFLAGS="-O3 -march=pentium3 -fomit-frame-pointer" CHOST="i686-pc-linux-gnu" COMPILER="" CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xkb /usr/kde/2/share/config /usr/kde/3/share/config /usr/lib/mozilla/defaults/pref /usr/share/config /var/qmail/control" CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/gconf /etc/terminfo /etc/env.d" CXXFLAGS="-O3 -march=pentium3 -fomit-frame-pointer" DISTDIR="/usr/portage/distfiles" FEATURES="autoaddcvs autoconfig ccache distcc distlocks sandbox sfperms" GENTOO_MIRRORS="http://gentoo.osuosl.org http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/distributions/gentoo" MAKEOPTS="-j2" PKGDIR="/usr/portage/packages" PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp" PORTDIR="/usr/portage" PORTDIR_OVERLAY="" SYNC="rsync://rsync.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage" USE="x86 16bit S3TC X acpi alsa async cups dga gnome gpm gstreamer gtk gtk2 gtkhtml hal howl icq imlib2 insecure-drivers jabber jpeg jpeg2k mime mmx mmx2 mng mono mozsvg mp3 mplayer msn nptl openal pcmcia pcre png quicktime real xrandr"
This is normal behaviour. The * is expanded by the shell and the -----gfhgfh is passed to ls. Everything beginnin with -- is interpreted as an option by ls. But such an option doesn't exist and it fails. If you have such files you need to terminate the options with --, like "ls -- *" This makes ls take everything after the -- as arguments and not as options.
