GNU bug report logs - #12551
ls -l

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Message #10 received at control <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Bob Proulx <bob <at> proulx.com>
To: "Chen,Wei" <weichen <at> mdanderson.org>
Cc: 12551 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#12551: ls -l
Date: Mon, 1 Oct 2012 10:49:08 -0600

tag 12551 + moreinfo
thanks

Chen,Wei wrote:
> When I typed 'ls -l *chr4*' in linux, it gave me this:
> 
> bash-4.1$  ls -l *chr4*
> ls: invalid option -- '4'
> Try `ls --help' for more information.
> 
> It used to work for me, why?

You are expanding a file glob "*chr4*" in the current directory.  This
will be expanded to match any files in the current directory.  If any
of those files start with a dash character '-' then the string will be
interpreted as an option.

You can see the problem by using echo to print the file glob.

  echo ls -l *chr4*

To avoid it you will need to force an end of option argument
processing or force the string to not start with a dash.

  ls -l -- *chr4*
  ls -l ./*chr4*

Please see this FAQ and the next two related ones after it too.

  http://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/faq/#How-do-I-remove-files-that-start-with-a-dash_003f

Bob

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