Meta characters (or) wild card characters in Unix/Linux:
(a) * : It matches zero (or) more characters in the given file
EX: $ ls a* ----> Displaying files star with ‘a”.
$ ls i* ----> Start with ‘I” end with ‘g’
$ ls *g ----> list out end with ‘g’ only
$ rm I * ----> removes start with i
$cp a* Documents/ copies start with a
$ cp - rf I * g Documents /
$ cp - rvf * / backup copies current directory all files
(b) ? : It matches any single character in the given file
Ex: $ ls ? ----> Display single character files.
$ ls ?? ----> Two character files
$ ls a ??? ----> list four character files but first one is ‘a’.
$ rm ?? ----> Removes two character files.
$ cp ??? Documents/ copies three character files.
(c) [ ] : It matches any single characters in the given list.
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EX: $ ls [aeiou] ----> Displays given matching character files.
$ ls [aeiou] * ----> Displays start with a,e,I,o,u files.
$ rm [aeiou] * ----> Removing start with a,e,I,o,u
$ cp [aeiou] * Unix/ copying start with a,e,I,o,u
(d) [ - ] : It matches any single characters in the given range.
EX: $ ls [a-f] * ----> Displays start with a,b,c,d,e,f
$ ls [a-f, o-v] * ----> Display start with a-e & o-v
$ rm [a-f] * ----> Removes a-f
$ cp [a-f, 1-9] * Unix/ copying files a-f & 1-9
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