Questions tagged [wildcards]

Wildcards in computer programming are symbols that can stand for any number of different points of data. Using wildcards in a query will return more results that standard parameters.

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74 votes
2 answers
76k views

Does %* in batch file mean all command line arguments?

Does %* in batch file mean all command line arguments?
Matt's user avatar
  • 6,309
50 votes
8 answers
64k views

Is there any way to get the windows cmd shell to expand wildcard paths?

Occasionally, the cmd shell's inability to expand wildcard paths can really be an inconvenience. I had to pass 100 files in a directory to a program, and couldn't type *.ext. Instead, I used mingw's '...
cemulate's user avatar
  • 1,121
25 votes
5 answers
422k views

Using wildcard search/replace in Notepad++

Here's my problem: In a .txt file, I need to find and replace thousands of instances of syntax like this: (see (a053007djfgspwdf)) or (see (a053007djfgspwdf) and (a54134xsedgeg)) or (see (...
Michael Tuck's user avatar
25 votes
1 answer
878 views

DEL *1.* deletes all files in folder

I'm trying to delete all files that end with the number one, but for some reason it is deleting all of the files in the folder. The command I'm using is DEL *1.* It works when I use a letter like ...
Alex's user avatar
  • 323
24 votes
4 answers
7k views

Is it possible to print out the shell expansion?

I know there is a specific set of rules that shell expand the commands user typed. (let's talk about bash shell.) Is it possible to print out a command in the form after shell expansion? It seems to ...
Weishi Z's user avatar
  • 343
21 votes
1 answer
14k views

Exclude directories from Windows Search by wildcard

Search Indexing is interfering with our build process, and I would like to exclude all instances of our dev directories from the indexer (we have a trunk and branches setup). I could exclude the whole ...
mskfisher's user avatar
  • 1,063
17 votes
4 answers
81k views

PowerShell: How do I append a prefix to all files in a directory?

Currently I'm using cmdlets like: dir | rename-item -NewName {$_.name -replace "-","_"} But now I need to add a prefix to the filename for all files in the directory. I can't predict how long each ...
Giffyguy's user avatar
  • 1,032
17 votes
8 answers
29k views

Trouble trying to use Windows Search to search for file with a question mark in the content

It seems that Windows Search is having trouble when I specify a question mark character as the content that I'm searching for within my files. I've tried: content:? content:"?" content:"\?" content:\...
jpierson's user avatar
  • 317
17 votes
3 answers
47k views

How to search Outlook Exchange Global Address List with Wildcards?

Our exchange GAL contains many group addresses, and it's hard to find a certain group contains for example "ABC". In the Contacts tab in outlook there is no option to search for a name that contains ...
Noam Manos's user avatar
  • 1,952
14 votes
2 answers
37k views

Launch a shortcut using batch file

Here's the problem. I have a shortcut on roughly 260 computers located in the same folder as below; "c:\documents and settings\all users\desktop\Remote agent 1234.lnk" The only thing that changes ...
ghost3h's user avatar
  • 318
13 votes
6 answers
42k views

Using a wildcard in a condition to match the beginning of a string

Trying to have a variable meet a string of text that varies by length. The part of the string that matters is the first couple of characters. var1=hello if [ $var1 == hello ]; then echo ...
EAG08's user avatar
  • 131
13 votes
3 answers
77k views

Search for a file with wildcards in the path using Windows command line

How can I search for files in the Windows command line, using wildcards like this? C:\Users\*\AppData\Local\*.txt
Saw's user avatar
  • 265
12 votes
2 answers
12k views

How to use wildcards in a xargs-command?

I've got a directory with numbered files, e.g. 1_foo.txt 2_bar.asc 13_test.png, and want to move them into individual directories (e.g. 1, 2 and 13) using as simple a bash command as possible. ...
n.st's user avatar
  • 1,968
12 votes
2 answers
31k views

Can Outlook Search use Regular Expressions (or wild cards)?

I'd like to search my Outlook email with regular expressions. Is this possible? If not, is there any sort of non-regex wildcard functionality? Without any sort of plug-in is preferable, but if not, ...
b w's user avatar
  • 2,704
12 votes
5 answers
26k views

Wildcards in Word

I know little of wildcard usage in word. wildcards - case sensitive TO FIND enter mark ^13 tab ^t any lowercase letter [a-z] any ...
user avatar
11 votes
1 answer
8k views

`locate` wildcard strange behavior - why?

locate "*.png" returns all files ending with .png, as expected. locate "test.*" doesn't return anything, but there are files named test in my system. locate "*test" returns all files ending with ...
Vittorio Romeo's user avatar
10 votes
1 answer
9k views

Wildcards in uBlock websites not working

I use uBlock0 on Firefox 40.0.2 and I the filter *.stackexchange.com###hot-network-questions in "My Filters" does not remove the element. When I replace *.stackexchangewith academia.stackexchange, ...
Konrad Höffner's user avatar
9 votes
2 answers
5k views

Firefox: save username/password for all sub domains?

Not sure if this is possible -- I have a username and password combo which is valid for all sub-domains of a given domain, that is: domain1.example.com, domain2.example.com, domain3.example.com, etc. ...
Josh's user avatar
  • 9,707
9 votes
1 answer
18k views

lftp - mirror and wildcards

Is there anyway to use wildcards ("*") when using mirror command? I know there is a mget command, which is simply the same as get, but one can use wildcards with it. Is there something equivelant to ...
eregus's user avatar
  • 433
8 votes
2 answers
12k views

Can bash wildcards specify negative matches?

In bash is it possible to use wildcards to specify "all files in current directory EXCEPT [files matching a specific (wildcard) pattern]"? Eg, "all files which don't match *~" Or more generally, is ...
RashaMatt's user avatar
  • 459
8 votes
1 answer
12k views

Start a program based on a wildcard in a Batch Script

I'm creating a setup script for a program developed by someone else. Their installer won't install over an existing version, so I need to uninstall any previous installations. The uninstaller is ...
daxlerod's user avatar
  • 3,165
7 votes
2 answers
14k views

Run `ls` recursively with wildcards

I'm trying to find all the project files of a particular file type with: ls -ltR *.mb I know there are the files I want in several folders, but I get no results back. What did I do wrong?
whatIsLife's user avatar
7 votes
1 answer
18k views

Wildcard for Chrome search?

I want to search for a word on a page. I know the first letter is a P the last letter is a L and there are 4 letters in-between them. How can I search for this word?
wizlog's user avatar
  • 13.3k
6 votes
4 answers
8k views

Windows wildcards with files having more than 3 characters extensions

On Windows 7, I have a directory containing the following four files: xxx.txt xxx.txt2 xxx2.txt xxx2.txt2 With the file have more than 3 character as a file extension, the behavior of the wildcard * ...
tristof's user avatar
  • 105
6 votes
1 answer
2k views

Ignore types of files when you tab from the command line

One of the nice features of vim is that you can ask it to ignore certain types of files when you hit tab by using the following command in vimrc: set wildignore+=*.hi,*.pyc,*.o Is there a similar ...
Kevin Burke's user avatar
6 votes
4 answers
16k views

KeePass wildcard in url

I started using Keepass yesterday and it's really useful however I cannot find a way to add wildcard into the url... I want one key being used on all url(s) that met the following rule: http://www*....
Marcx's user avatar
  • 717
6 votes
3 answers
1k views

Do not expand wildcard on tab completion

I'm wondering how I can configure zsh to not expand the wildcard in a filename. For example I have a directory of a couple hundred files named as following: a.foo-bar a.foo b.foo-bar b.foo c.foo-bar ...
BMorgenthaler's user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
631 views

How to prevent command line wildcard processor from evaluating short file names

I'm developing a batch file within which I'm using the following pattern: *.res I want to select all files with the extension .res, but this pattern is matching files with an extension of .resources ...
Avalanchis's user avatar
6 votes
2 answers
10k views

Microsoft Office Word 2010: How to "Find and Replace" an entire line using "regular expressions" (wildcards)?

I would like to "Find and Replace" entire lines in Microsoft Office Word 2010 which match some criteria. I tried to find the solution in the official documentation, but I didn't find the answer: ...
Sk8erPeter's user avatar
  • 1,120
6 votes
3 answers
6k views

How do I delete all files within subdirectories matching a given wildcard in Windows?

I would like to delete all files on a Windows server matching this wildcard: E:\Cache\*\*\*_ROOT\a*_SYMBOL\weekly* In linux, I could just put an rm -rf in front of it and it would work. If I try ...
Erick Robertson's user avatar
5 votes
2 answers
4k views

Why can't the wildcard expression be used as a non-root user?

I am using a wildcard expression to match a filename. This is what happens with a normal, non-root user: debian@MiWiFi-R3-srv:~$ sudo ls /var/log/apache2/*[0-9].gz ls: cannot access '/var/log/apache2/...
showkey's user avatar
  • 149
5 votes
2 answers
11k views

Move folders using wildcard

I have a script to move folders from one local account to my admin. But I want to use a wildcard in my script, so for example if the folder name is FOLDER, FOLDER1 is also moved to the admin. I am ...
yannick godeau's user avatar
5 votes
4 answers
47k views

How do use wildcards in command prompt?

This page on Command Line Syntax says I can use something like *.txt to search for a file. For example, folder Z contains a.txt, b.txt, c.doc, etc. Now, after I've changed the working directory to ...
user avatar
5 votes
0 answers
176 views

Wildcards in Windows 8 search [duplicate]

I already read this question: Can I use wildcards in Windows 8 search? but it doesn't answer mine. It seems to me, that the wildcards (especially *) are not consistently working correctly. Assume I ...
Rico-E's user avatar
  • 165
4 votes
3 answers
12k views

"Argument list too long" error for `rm -rf *` on a directory with 4000 files

I thought this issue was fixed in Linux like 10 years ago. 4000 files really doesn't seem too excessive and should be able to be removed no problem. So this issue clearly exists in OS X - maybe not in ...
timpone's user avatar
  • 793
4 votes
3 answers
14k views

How can I do find and replace parenthesis surrounded text with regex on Microsoft Word

I have a document that has (TL by user) all over the place. I'd like to replace this with nothing (thereby deleting it everywhere) but the user could be different or there could be many users (TL by ...
irregular's user avatar
  • 155
4 votes
3 answers
102 views

Is there a windows app with a preview function to recursively delete by wildcard?

I'd like to do a ... delete *.dll from a folder, but preview it to make sure there aren't actually any folder names I have forgotten are there that I would actually want to keep. Other possiblities: ...
Maslow's user avatar
  • 916
4 votes
1 answer
14k views

Is there a system wildcard for user documents?

I'm working on a batch script that deletes folders and files and I want to know if there is a default wildcard that represents: %userprofile%\Documents\ I know about C:\Users\%USERNAME\Documents\ and ...
Mr. Mendelli's user avatar
  • 1,259
4 votes
1 answer
9k views

Word wildcards/regex search from the begining of line till the first :

In MS word 2013 I'm having multiple lines like: Duis pulvinar, enim montes : magna tincidunt penatibus nec amet a nec tristique rhoncus aliquet? porttitor diam amet : nascetur sociis dapibus nascetur ...
Enissay's user avatar
  • 143
4 votes
2 answers
3k views

How to specify a space as part of a wildcard string for bulk renaming of files

I have approximately 1200 songs in a folder whose filenames are structured as follows: artist_name - song_name.mp3 For example: Billy Joel - Piano Man.mp3 The Beatles - Nowhere Man.mp3 I'd like to ...
Ed S.'s user avatar
  • 43
4 votes
2 answers
4k views

Windows-7 search for contents does not work with wildcards

With Windows 7, I try to run a search for a word or pattern in (mostly MS Word) files. Typing contents:NeedleInHaystack this works perfectly. But as soon as I include wildcards (e.g. Needle?nHaystack")...
Martin's user avatar
  • 382
4 votes
1 answer
6k views

What are all of the globs I can use with grep in bash?

Linux and Unix-like shells like bash allow for the use of globs to approximate filenames and make file searching easier. I'm aware of the wildcard glob (*). What other globs exist in bash that I can ...
Hashim Aziz's user avatar
  • 12.7k
4 votes
1 answer
2k views

Microsoft Word Wildcards to Find Any Dates of a certain form

I am editing a very large document (~200 pages), with multiple dates on each page. I am looking to use MS Word's wildcard function in the find-and-replace feature to remove these. Some examples of ...
Will Pike's user avatar
  • 137
3 votes
3 answers
1k views

cmd has wildcard bug? [duplicate]

Files in folder: a.j ab.jp abc.jpg abcd.jpeg dir command results: Command Result (Files shown) ---------- -------------------- dir ?.* a.j dir ??.* a.j, ab.jp dir ???.* a.j, ...
Živka Blažević's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
583 views

'find' utility does not output all files when using wildcards

Running: $find . -name *.exe gives: ./MakeItSo_1.2.2/MakeItSo_1.2.2/MakeItSo.exe ./MakeItSo.exe but those are not the only exe files in the directory. For example, running $find . -name ATLTester....
dafnahaktana's user avatar
3 votes
2 answers
2k views

bash is not deterministicly processing the asterisk wildcard

I accidentally added a user to my system without a home directory (I forgot to put the -d and -m flags in useradd). Rather than deleting the user and starting over I attempted to simply mkdir the home ...
curios's user avatar
  • 360
3 votes
1 answer
1k views

Firefox bookmark with wildcard and keyword

In Firefox, how do I set up URL shortcuts that include a wildcard, %s? I have definitely set this up before on another computer. For example, if I wanted to view a Jira ticket, I would enter jira ...
MeanwhileInHell's user avatar
3 votes
2 answers
10k views

DD-WRT routers - How can I specify any/all IP address ranges?

I'm creating port forwarding rules on my DD-WRT router (shown below) and want to allow all (any) source networks access. My thought was to specify 0.0.0.0/32 but that is not working. How do I ...
Matthew's user avatar
  • 2,620
3 votes
2 answers
5k views

How can I use *.* in the Windows 7 search filter?

Why in the world can I not use *.* in Windows 7 search? All I want to do is return all the files in all the sub-directories in one location so I can sort by dimensions. Any one know how to return all ...
Sam's user avatar
  • 133
3 votes
3 answers
16k views

WinSCP putting multiple files on SFTP site

With WinSCP 5.2 I wanted to put multiple files with a file extension .pgp on an SFTP site. When I tested my original command line (see below) and it only placed the first *.pgp alphabetical file (D:\a....
NewToWinSCP's user avatar

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