A File Glob is a way to match files. "*" matches any charactor. "?" matches any charactor exactly once. "[a-z?" matches any charactor in the range a-z.

Some examples

• .*

matches all files that contain a "." in them.

a*

matches all files that begin with a

[a-z?*

matches all files that begin with a lowercase letter

• .gz

matches all files that end with .gz

Note, * and ? don't match / or a . at the beginning of a filename eg: * doesn't match

. .. .foo baz/nargle

but does match

foo.txt baz/

See glob(7) for more advanced uses.

Contrast RegularExpressions?.