Alcatel Carrier Internetworking Solutions omniswitch User Manual

Managing System Files

File and Directory Management

OmniSwitch 6600 Family Switch Management Guide

page 2-7

Wildcards allow you to substitute symbols (* or ?) for text patterns while using file and directory 
commands. The asterisk (*) takes the place of multiple characters and the question mark character (?) 
takes the place of single characters. More than one wildcard can be used within a single text string.

An asterisk (*) is used as a wildcard for multiple characters in a text pattern. The following command will 
list all entries in the current directory that end with the .log extension.

-> ls *.log 

Listing Directory /flash: 

-rw     64000 Sep 21 19:49 swlog1.log 

-rw     64000 Aug 12 19:06 swlog2.log

The following command lists all entries in the current directory that contain the i character.

-> ls *i* 

Listing Directory /flash: 

drw      2048 Aug 21 17:49 certified/ 

drw      2048 Aug 12 18:51 working/ 

-rw        31 Jul 29  2001 policy.cfg 

drw      2048 Jul 28 12:17 switch/

The question mark (?) is used as a wildcard for a single character in a text pattern. The following 
command will locate all entries containing swlog followed by any single character, followed by the .log 
extension.

-> ls swlog?.log 

Listing Directory /flash: 

-rw     64000 Jul 21 19:49 swlog1.log 

-rw     64000 Aug 12 19:06 swlog2.log

The single and multiple character wildcards can be used in combination. The following command lists all 
entries containing the letter i followed by any two single characters.

-> ls *i?? 

Listing Directory /flash: 

drw      2048 Aug 12 18:51 working/