Subject: Re: bug#9504: ls oddity
From: Eric Blake <[email-masked]>
To: Dave Pawson <[email-masked]>
Cc: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 14 Sep 2011 08:03:59 -0600
List-Id: <debbugs-submit.debbugs.gnu.org>

tag 9504 notabug
thanks

On 09/14/2011 05:58 AM, Dave Pawson wrote:
> ls -al works as expected
>
> ls *.xml ... fails?
>
> [dpawson@localhost pawson]$ ls *.xml
> ls: invalid option -- ':'
> Try `ls --help' for more information.
>
>
> Not sure if it's a bug or my setup?

The only bug here is in your command line arguments.  This is a FAQ:
https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/faq/#I-have-a-file-_0027_002df_0027-and-it-affects-rm_002e

Try:
echo ls *.xml

to see what the glob expanded to; my guess is that you have a file named 
"-:.xml" or something similar, which ls is then trying to interpret as 
an option.

To avoid the problem, use either:
ls -- *.xml
ls ./*.xml

-- 
Eric Blake   [email-masked]    +1-801-349-2682
Libvirt virtualization library http://libvirt.org