wildcards -- Definition

Wildcards are characters that, in some circumstances, can represent a range
of  ASCII characters.   Another name for  them is  ``metacharacters''.  The
wildcards available under COHERENT are as follows:

?    Match any one character.

*    Match any number of characters, or no characters at all.

[ ]  A  set of  characters  enclosed between  `['  and `]'   match any  one
     character of the set.  Sets  of characters may include ranges, such as
     [a-z] for all lower-case letters or [0-9] for all numerals.

[! ] A  set of  characters enclosed  between  `[!' and  `]'  match  any one
     character  except one  of  the set.   Sets of  characters may  include
     ranges,  such as  [a-z] for  all lower-case letters  or [0-9]  for all
     numerals.  For example, the command

         ls [!abc]*

     prints the names of all files except those that begin with a, b, or c.

\    Ignore the special meaning of a wildcard.

See Also

egrep,
pattern,
pnmatch(),
Using COHERENT

© 2012 by Stephen A. Ness