wildcard expansions

created by holloway
(thing) by holloway (8.1 y) (print)   (I like it!) Tue Jul 18 2000 at 6:24:00

Originally a CLI mask for filenames that used two 'anything' characters in order to narrow your selection of a file name.

  1. * (star) meaning any number of any possible characters (including zero characters; nothing).
  2. ? (question mark) meaning only one character of any possible characters (not including zero characters).

For example, f*uck could mask FireTruck. Whereas f?uck could mask ftuck

These days it's a more generic concept of describing similar things. Such as *nix describing not just the character pattern but anything like Unix. BSD or Linux, for example.

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