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.
234
questions
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Does %* in batch file mean all command line arguments?
Does %* in batch file mean all command line arguments?
50
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8
answers
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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 '...
25
votes
5
answers
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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 (...
25
votes
1
answer
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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
...
24
votes
4
answers
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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 ...
21
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1
answer
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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 ...
17
votes
4
answers
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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 ...
17
votes
8
answers
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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:\...
17
votes
3
answers
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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 ...
14
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2
answers
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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 ...
13
votes
6
answers
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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 ...
13
votes
3
answers
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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
12
votes
2
answers
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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.
...
12
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2
answers
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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, ...
12
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5
answers
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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 ...
11
votes
1
answer
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`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 ...
10
votes
1
answer
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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, ...
9
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2
answers
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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. ...
9
votes
1
answer
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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 ...
8
votes
2
answers
12k
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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 ...
8
votes
1
answer
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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 ...
7
votes
2
answers
14k
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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?
7
votes
1
answer
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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?
6
votes
4
answers
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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 * ...
6
votes
1
answer
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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 ...
6
votes
4
answers
16k
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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*....
6
votes
3
answers
1k
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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 ...
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 ...
6
votes
2
answers
10k
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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:
...
6
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3
answers
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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 ...
5
votes
2
answers
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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/...
5
votes
2
answers
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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 ...
5
votes
4
answers
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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 ...
5
votes
0
answers
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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 ...
4
votes
3
answers
12k
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"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 ...
4
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3
answers
14k
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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 ...
4
votes
3
answers
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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: ...
4
votes
1
answer
14k
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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 ...
4
votes
1
answer
9k
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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 ...
4
votes
2
answers
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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 ...
4
votes
2
answers
4k
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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")...
4
votes
1
answer
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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 ...
4
votes
1
answer
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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 ...
3
votes
3
answers
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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, ...
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....
3
votes
2
answers
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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 ...
3
votes
1
answer
1k
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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 ...
3
votes
2
answers
10k
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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 ...
3
votes
2
answers
5k
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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 ...
3
votes
3
answers
16k
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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....