Wildcards

Wildcards may by used to specify a group of files. Here is a list of some most commonly used wildcards:

• ? (question mark) matches any single character
  example: To list all dlx files needed for assignment 1 use:
  

  ls a1q?.dlx

• * (asterisk) matches zero or more characters
  be careful, . has no special meaning (except for ls command) and so,
  rm *
  will remove everything without any warning or asking however, '.' is considered special for ls command:
  Example:
  

  ls a*.txt
  

• $[$character-list$]$ matches any single character that appears in the list.
  Example:
  [ab] means either a or b
  [a-z] means any character between a and z, inclusive
  ls test[12345].txt
  or
  ls test[1-5].txt
  

  NOTE: you will hear about regular expressions (REs) and their rules soon in class, in assignments and in lab3. Be aware, that *,?, $[$$]$ have a different meaning in shell and in rules used by RE. You will need to know and use both.