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Wildcards

CS155 Wildcards

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Wildcards

• Often, we wish to apply a command to multiple files or directories
• Wildcards can help us do this efficiently
• The wildcard symbols are: *, ?, [], {}
  • * – match zero or more characters
  • ? – match any one character
  • [] – match any characters in the brackets
  • {} – match any word in the brackets

Wildcards: Examples 1

Select all files ending in .txt

• *.txt

Select all files beginning with assignment

• assignment*

Select any file beginning with Homework_,

• Homework_*

Wildcards: Examples 2

Select any file beginning with Homework_, followed by 1, 2, 3, or 4, and ending with .file

• Homework_[1-4].file

Select rod.flanders.file and tod.flanders.file

• [rt]od.flanders.file

Select any file ending with .txt or .jpg. Note the comma!

• *.{txt,jpg}

Wildcards: In Use

Move all .txt files into the directory files

    % mv *.txt files

Remove all files beginning with HW, followed by a digit, and ending with .file

    % rm HW[0-9].file

List all files ending with .txt or .jpg

    % ls -l *.{txt,jpg} | more