How can I do `ls` on a dotfile?

Question

ls on a dotfile

My directory contains:

$ ls -A    
.dotfile20091021   file20091020       file20091021

I want to list ALL files containing 20091021 in their name.

If I run:

$ ls -A *20091021*    
file20091021

If I run:

$ ls -A .*20091021*    
.dotfile20091021

Can I get both files in a single "ls" command?

Answer 1

According to this link there is a bash option to glob dot files:

shopt -s dotglob

If you use bash then all you would need to do after that is:

ls -A *20091021*

(Cannot test it here)

Answer 2

ls -A1 | grep "20091021"

Answer 3

You can simply do

ls -a *20091021 .*20091021

(Sticking strictly to your request that you want to do this in a single ls)

Answer 4

You are relying on (whatever shell you are using) to do glob expansion.

ls -lah | grep \.foo

.. might help you sort that out in a portable way.

For instance:

user@tower:~ ls -lah | grep \.mozilla
drwx------  3 root root 4.0K 2007-11-14 06:17 .mozilla
user@tower:~    

Behold, the power of pipes :) Expanding that is an exercise for the reader. shopt is not portable and on systems that use a strictly POSIX shell (such as dash) it breaks. Better to write it simply, and portably .. or you'll upload your tried and true script to a box running some other distro and watch it break, horribly.

NB, each shell does glob expansion in its own way, broadly determined by its license. Please, please, please avoid bashisms. Ubuntu spent tens of thousands of dollars getting rid of those in their product.