How can you create a file named –i? Which techniques do not work, and why do they not work? How can you remove the file named –i?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Most utilities assume –i is an option, not the name of a file, and therefore
do not work properly when they are called with an argument of a file named
–i:
$ touch -i
touch: invalid option -- i
Try 'touch --help' for more information.
The following commands create a file named –i:
$ cat > -i
CONTROL-D
The preceding example uses the shell to create the file. It works because the
shell expects a filename following a redirect output symbol and does not
treat –i as an option.
Many utilities assume everything on the command line to the right of a ––
option is a filename. Using one of these utilities, you can work with a file
whose name begins with a hyphen by marking the end of the options on the
command line with the –– option followed by the filename:
$ touch -- -i
You can remove the file by using –– to signal the end of the options:
$ rm -- -i
One of the easiest ways to create and remove this file is to locate it in the
working directory as ./–i. The filename does not begin with a hyphen so
there is no confusion.
$ touch ./-i
$ rm ./-i