Using Filename Generation Wildcards

Most of the file commands can work with one or more files. For example, file commands can work with the following:

  • Single files

  • Several files

  • Hundreds of files

  • Tens of thousands of files (This is, of course, more difficult.)

As always, UNIX can increase productivity. In this case, UNIX provides a way to enter a very long series of filenames to a command by using a very short sequence of keystrokes. The user can enter within any command one or more pattern words, and the shell will replace each pattern with a list of all filenames that match that pattern. A pattern word is any word that contains one of the wildcard characters shown in Table 11.1. Each of these wildcards will be covered in the following sections. ...

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