Operation Manual

Completion
Completing a lename or directory name to its full length after typing its rst letters
is another helpful feature of Bash. To do so, type the rst letters then press →|
(Tabulator). If the lename or path can be uniquely identied, it is completed at
once and the cursor moves to the end of the lename. You can then enter the next
option of the command, if necessary. If the lename or path cannot be uniquely
identied (because there are several lenames starting with the same letters), the
lename or path is only completed up to the point where it becomes ambiguous
again. You can then obtain a list of them by pressing →| a second time. After this,
you can enter the next letters of the le or path then try completion again by
pressing →|. When completing lenames and paths with the help of →|, you can
simultaneously check whether the le or path you want to enter really exists (and
you can be sure of getting the spelling right).
Wild Cards
You can replace one or more characters in a lename with a wild card for pathname
expansion. Wild cards are characters that can stand for other characters. There are
three different types of these in Bash:
FunctionWild Card
Matches exactly one arbitrary character
?
Matches any number of characters
*
Matches one of the characters from the group specied
inside the square brackets, which is represented here by
the string set.
[set]
21.6.1 Examples For Using History,
Completion and Wildcards
The following examples illustrate how to make use of these convenient features of
Bash.
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