How to rename a file with a leading hyphen?

[Tim Chase]

On 02/28/2011 09:12 PM, joe at actionline.com wrote:
> When I download images and ".MOV" files from digikam
> the file names all have a leading hyphen. I've been
> able to convert -filename.png files to filename.jpg
> but when I try to use 'mv' to rename -filename.MOV files
> to filename.MOV or filename.mov without the leading
> hyphen, it does not work.
>
> How can I rename these .MOV files to remove the leading
> hyphen (-) and to change the .MOV suffix to .mov ?

You can prefix with the path:

   bash$ mv ./-file.png file.png

This could also be wrapped in a shell loop:

  for fname in -*.png; do mv ./"${fname}" "${fname/#-/}"; done

to do multiple files with leading "-" characters.  Note this will 
cold-heartedly tromp any existing files with the non-leading-dash 
if they exist beforehand.

Some GNU commands will also take "--" to mean "ignore any 
option-looking things after this" so you might be able to get 
away with

   bash$ mv -- -file.png file.png

though I don't think "mv" is among the commands that do that.

-tim