Globbing

• Globbing uses wildcard characters to match filename patterns.
• Shell expands them before running the command.
• Allow work with many files at once.
• Works with any command (ls, rm, cp, mv, etc.).

1. Asterisk *

• Matches zero or more characters.
• Useful to select many files with similar names.

Example:

echo file*

Matches: file, file1, fileA.txt, file_test.doc (anything starting with file).

2. Question Mark ?

• Matches exactly one character (not zero, not more).
• Each ? stands for one unknown character.

Example:

echo file?.txt

Matches: file1.txt, fileA.txt, fileX.txt Does not match: file10.txt (because that's two characters)

Pattern	Meaning	Matches Example	Not Match Example
??????	Exactly 6 characters	abc123	abcd (4 chars)
D????????	Starts with D + 7 more chars (8 total)	Dabc1234	Abc12345 (no D start)
?????*s	At least 5 chars, ends with s	apples, books	apple (no s)

3. Brackets [ ]

• Matches any one character inside the brackets.
• Can specify ranges, e.g., [a-z] or [0-9] or [0123]

Example:

echo file[1-3].txt

Matches: file1.txt, file2.txt, file3.txt Does not match: file4.txt

4. Exclamation Point !

• Used inside brackets [ ] to negate a range.
• Matches any character not listed in the brackets.

Example:

echo file[!1-3].txt

Matches: file4.txt, file5.txt, etc. Does not match: file1.txt, file2.txt, file3.txt

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Pattern	Meaning	Matches Example	Not Match Example
[DP]*	Starts with D or P	Data, Paper, Desk	Cat, Apple
[!DP]*	Starts with anything except D or P	Cat, Apple, Ball	Data, Page
[D-P]*	Starts with any letter D to P (range)	Desk, House, Note	Apple, Zebra
[!D-P]*	Starts with any character outside D–P	Apple, Zebra, cat	Desk, Game

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Listing With Globs

• The shell expands glob patterns before ls runs.
• Problem: Using ls with globs shows contents of directories, which can be confusing.
• Solution: Use -d option to list directory names instead of contents.

Example:

ls /etc/x*      # lists contents of matching directories
ls -d /etc/x*   # lists directory names only