Wildcards & Globbing
Use wildcard patterns to match multiple files at once instead of typing each name.
Typing file names one by one gets tedious fast. Wildcards (also called globbing patterns) let you match multiple files with a single expression. The shell expands the pattern into all matching file names before the command even runs. It's like a search filter built right into the command line.
The two most common wildcards are
?. The asterisk ? matches exactly one character. You can combine them with regular text to build precise patterns.ls *.txt # All files ending in .txt
ls image?.png # image1.png, image2.png, but not image10.png
ls *.js # All JavaScript files
ls test_* # All files starting with "test_"Wildcards are expanded by the shell, not by the command itself. So
ls .txt and cat .txt and rm *.txt all use the same pattern matching — the shell finds the matches and passes the file names as arguments. This is why wildcards work with virtually every command.●
Be cautious with rm — it deletes every file in the current directory. Always double-check your pattern with ls first. Running ls .log before rm *.log shows you exactly what will be deleted.
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Our terminal simulator uses find for glob matching rather than direct shell expansion. Use find . -name ".txt" to search for patterns. In a real terminal, ls .txt works directly.
WIN
In Command Prompt, wildcards work with dir (e.g., dir .txt) but not all commands. PowerShell supports wildcards more broadly with Get-ChildItem .txt or ls *.txt. In WSL, wildcards work exactly as shown here.
This workspace has a mix of file types. Try using a wildcard pattern to find all the
.txt files. Use find . -name "*.txt" to search for them.find . -name "*.txt"Practice