Wildcards in Filenames

From: http://www.robelle.com/smugbook/wildcard.html

Wildcards in Filenames

UNIX allows wildcards in almost all commands -- it is actually a feature of the shell. Caution: UNIX also uses the wildcard characters in pattern matching, but the meaning is only similar, not identical.

UNIX Wildcards

Text version.

? any single character, except a leading dot

* zero or more characters, except a leading dot

[ ] defines a class of characters ( - for range, ! to exclude)

UNIX Examples:

Text version.

[abc]?? 3 character filename beginning with "a", "b", or "c".

[1-9][A-Z] 2 character filename starting with a number, and ending with an uppercase letter.

[!A-Z]?? 3 character filename that does not begin with an uppercase letter.

*e[0-9]f any file ending with "e", a single number, and "f".

?	any single character, except a leading dot
*	zero or more characters, except a leading dot
[ ]	defines a class of characters ( - for range, ! to exclude)

[abc]??	3 character filename beginning with "a", "b", or "c".
[1-9][A-Z]	2 character filename starting with a number, and ending with an uppercase letter.
[!A-Z]??	3 character filename that does not begin with an uppercase letter.
*e[0-9]f	any file ending with "e", a single number, and "f".