Annoying globbing

Story: Bash Extended GlobbingTotal Replies: 12
Author Content
Sander_Marechal

Oct 09, 2008
5:47 PM EST 		There's one thing that always annoyed me about globbing: How can I match *all* files in a directory? Not just regular files but hidden dotfiles as well, but obviously not the special . and .. directories.

It often happens that I want to move/copy all files from one directory to another but then it leave behind .htaccess files and the like.
herzeleid

Oct 09, 2008
6:22 PM EST 		I always just say * .??* to mean all files.

Of course the ?? after the dot is to keep it from matching . and ..
Sander_Marechal

Oct 10, 2008
4:32 AM EST 		But that fails to match dotfiles with less than three characters.
gus3

Oct 10, 2008
4:40 AM EST 		I use ".[0-9A-Za-z]*" to match the hidden files and directories. In my $HOME, I have none with strange symbols after the first dot, so that pattern matches well enough for me.
herzeleid

Oct 10, 2008
12:11 PM EST 		> But that fails to match dotfiles with less than three characters.

Did I make a typo? In that case, use .?
jdixon

Oct 10, 2008
12:20 PM EST 		> Did I make a typo? In that case, use .?

But .? should match ..
jezuch

Oct 10, 2008
2:32 PM EST
Quoted:
I use ".[0-9A-Za-z]*" to match the hidden files and directories.


What if I drop a file called ".?ó??"? :)
I usually use this one: .[^.]*
jezuch

Oct 10, 2008
2:34 PM EST 		Argh. There are supposed to be funny characters in my example filename, not question marks.
Who wrote this forum software?? ;P
Sander_Marechal

Oct 10, 2008
5:55 PM EST 		Ha! I just found the 'dotglob' option. run "shopt -s dotglob" and now * will match dotfiles but not . and ..
herzeleid

Oct 10, 2008
7:51 PM EST 		> Ha! I just found the 'dotglob' option. run "shopt -s dotglob" and now * will match dotfiles but not . and ..

Very good to know - and it just goes to show you, no matter how long you stay in this game, there is always something new to learn.
gus3

Oct 10, 2008
11:08 PM EST 		Dot-question and dot-dot are dangerous, because they will take you up instead of down.

@jezuch:

The forum began mis-behaving after the blackout recovery.
herzeleid

Oct 10, 2008
11:32 PM EST 		> Dot-question and dot-dot are dangerous, because they will take you up instead of down.

Yep, that's why we say .?? to avoid matching . or ..
jezuch

Oct 11, 2008
3:32 AM EST
Quoted:
Yep, that's why we say .?? to avoid matching . or ..


Or .a or .b or... ;)

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