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The ? character is a wildcard that is used to match any single character in a file name or path.įor example, the command ls a?b.txt would match any file with a name that has a "b" surrounded by an "a" and any single character, such as "a1b.txt" or "aXb.txt". Match any single character as wildcard using ?
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You can also use multiple wildcard special characters in a single command. For example, ls *.txt would match any file with a name that begins with a lowercase letter, followed by zero or more characters, and ends with the “.txt” extension.
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For example, ls *.txt would match any file with a name that begins with a character that is not an “a”, “b”, or “c”, followed by zero or more characters, and ends with the “.txt” extension. : This negated character class matches any single character that is not contained within the brackets.For example, ls *.txt would match any file with a name that begins with an “a”, “b”, or “c”, followed by zero or more characters, and ends with the “.txt” extension. : This character class matches any single character that is contained within the brackets.For example, ls a?b.txt would match any file with a name that has a “b” surrounded by an “a” and any single character, such as “a1b.txt” or “aXb.txt”. ?: This character matches any single character.Here are a few examples of wildcard special characters and how they can be used:
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There are several special characters that are used in combination with the wildcard character ( *) to match specific patterns in file names or paths. mv *.jpg /target/directory: This command would move all files in the current directory that have names that begin with a lowercase letter and end with the “.jpg” extension to the /target/directory directory.ls a*b*.txt: This command would list all files in the current directory that have names that begin with the letter “a”, followed by zero or more characters, followed by the letter “b”, followed by zero or more characters, and end with the “.txt” extension.You can also use multiple wildcards in a single command. grep 'ERROR' *.log: This command would search all files in the current directory that have the “.log” extension for the string “ERROR”.rm a*.txt: This command would delete all files in the current directory that have names that begin with the letter “a” and end with the “.txt” extension.cp * /target/directory: This command would copy all files in the current directory to the /target/directory directory.Here are a few more examples of how the wildcard character can be used in the Bash CLI: The asterisk is a placeholder for any characters that might appear before or after the ".txt" extension. It is used to match zero or more characters in a file name or a path.įor example, the command ls *.txt would list all files in the current directory that have the ".txt" extension. In the Bash command line interface (CLI), the wildcard character is the asterisk ( *).
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Wildcard Selection in Bash Select zero or more characters in a file name or a path using *
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