Rakhesh Sasidharan wrote:
> 
> OK, so I screwed up big time, and typed the following
> $ mkdir ls -al
> 
> SO now I have two directories "ls" and "-al".  I removed "ls", but don't
> know how to remove "-al".  All commands fail:
[...]

Use the absolute pathname:

$rmdir /${path_to_weird_directory}/-al


snafu
Martin
-- 
My mind works like lightning.
One brilliant flash and it's gone.

        -- someone on /.