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| * | An asterisk matches any number of characters in a filename, including none. |
| ? | The question mark matches any single character. |
| [ ] | Brackets enclose a set of characters, any one of which may match a single character at that position. |
| - | A hyphen used within [ ] denotes a range of characters. |
| ~ | A tilde at the beginning of a word expands to the name of your home directory. If you append another user's login name to the character, it refers to that user's home directory. |
Here are some examples for the usage of wild cards:
- cat c* : displays any file whose name begins with c including the file c, if it exists.
- ls *.c : lists all files that have a .c extension.
- cp ../rmt? . : copies every file in the parent directory that is four characters long and begins with rmt to the working directory. (The names will remain the same.)
- ls rmt[34567] : lists every file that begins with rmt and has a 3, 4, 5, 6, or 7 at the end.
- ls rmt[3-7] : does exactly the same thing as the previous example.
- ls ~ : lists your home directory.
- ls ~username : lists the home directory of the guy with the user name username.
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