Am Mo, den 19.04.2004 schrieb Vano Beridze um 09:17: > Hello > > I've accidentally (from a java program) created a directory named ~ in > my home directory. > Because ~ is a synonim for a home directory how can I delete this > directory safely? > I mean I don't want to delete my whole home directory just that wierd one. > > Thank you > Vano Besides the other suggestions, as a general annotation too, on bash you can use command -- special_sign_name The leading "--" tells the shell that the following is no options set. So in your case it would be while you are in the directory where the miscreated directory is placed rm -rf -- ~ You can use this too if you accidentally created i.e. a file named "-f" rm -f will not work, but rm -- -f will do. Alexander -- Alexander Dalloz | Enger, Germany | GPG key 1024D/ED695653 1999-07-13 Fedora GNU/Linux Core 1 (Yarrow) on Athlon CPU kernel 2.4.22-1.2179.nptl Sirendipity 16:51:48 up 23:37, 10 users, 0.05, 0.15, 0.16 [ ÎÎÏÎÎ Ï'ÎÏÏÎÎ - gnothi seauton ] my life is a planetarium - and you are the stars