Command touch and irregular file names

["- Tong -" <mlist4suntong@yahoo.com>]

Hi, 

How to let command touch to work with irregular file names?

In my script I have 

 touch -r "$file1" "$file2"

the file1/2 can be anything file, ../path/file, /root/file, etc.

The problem is when file1/2 are irregular file names. E.g., -test.file1/2.

I.e., anyway to make the following touch command works?

 $ touch -r "-test.file1" "-test.file2"
 touch: invalid date format `est.file2'

FYI, I tried this but didn't work:

 $ touch -r -- "-test.file1" "-test.file2"
 touch: invalid date format `est.file1'

I think if the touch command uses the standard gnu getopt lib, then
the above code should work, shouldn't it?

Thanks

tong