File globbing (wildcards *, ?, []) in Linux CLI - Mini Project: Build & Apply

File globbing with wildcards in Linux CLI

📖 Scenario: You are organizing files in a folder on your Linux system. You want to list files using patterns to find specific groups of files quickly.

🎯 Goal: Learn how to use file globbing with wildcards *, ?, and [] to match files in the command line.

📋 What You'll Learn

Use the ls command with wildcards to list files

Understand how * matches any characters

Understand how ? matches exactly one character

Understand how [] matches any one character inside brackets

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

File globbing is used daily by system administrators and developers to quickly find, list, or manipulate groups of files without typing each filename.

💼 Career

Knowing how to use wildcards in the command line is essential for tasks like batch renaming, backups, and scripting automation in Linux environments.

1

Create files for testing

Create exactly these files in the current directory using the touch command: file1.txt, file2.txt, fileA.txt, fileB.txt, data1.csv, data2.csv, image1.png, image2.png.

Linux CLI

# Use touch to create the files
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use one touch command with all filenames separated by spaces.

2

Set a pattern variable

Create a variable called pattern and set it to the string file?.txt to match files starting with 'file' followed by exactly one character and ending with '.txt'.

Linux CLI

touch file1.txt file2.txt fileA.txt fileB.txt data1.csv data2.csv image1.png image2.png
# Create the pattern variable
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use single quotes around the pattern string.

3

List files matching the pattern

Use the ls command with the variable $pattern to list files matching the pattern file?.txt.

Linux CLI

touch file1.txt file2.txt fileA.txt fileB.txt data1.csv data2.csv image1.png image2.png
pattern='file?.txt'
# List files matching the pattern
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use ls $pattern to expand the variable and list matching files.

4

Output the matched files

Run the script and observe the output. It should list exactly these files: file1.txt, file2.txt, fileA.txt, fileB.txt.

Linux CLI

touch file1.txt file2.txt fileA.txt fileB.txt data1.csv data2.csv image1.png image2.png
pattern='file?.txt'
ls $pattern
# Run the script to see output

Need a hint?

The output should show the four files matching the pattern.