UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Hi,

I have files in a directory with filenames that match three specific patterns:

1) [AT]*'.L2_LAC'*
2) [AT]*'.L2_LAC_OC'*
3) [AT]*'.L2_LAC_SST'*

I would like to have an "ls" command that will list only files matching the first two patterns. However, if I type:

Code:

ls [AT]*'.L2_LAC'*

I will get files that match all three patterns. If I type:

Code:

ls [AT]*'.L2_LAC_OC'*

I will only get files that match the second pattern. Neither of these options are acceptable.

An ideal command would list all of the files whose filenames match the pattern [AT]*'.L2_LAC and are NOT followed by 'SST' anywhere in the remainder of the filename, ie. something like:

Code:

ls [AT]*'.L2_LAC'*!SST

Any suggestions on how to do that?

Thank you very much.

Mike

First, file name expansion is performed by the shell, and not by the ls command, so the place to look for such tricks is the shell manual page.

Try this in Kshell; worked for me in a limited test. Might work in bash, but I'm not a heavy bash user and don't know what it's support for file name expansion is.

Code:

ls *([AT]*.L2_LAC*&!([AT]*.L2_LAC_SSL*))

Check out Kshell doc at man/man1/ksh.html man page for a full explanation.

---------- Post updated at 21:04 ---------- Previous update was at 20:59 ----------

Doesn't seem to work in bash; or not the version that I've got installed.

Try this:

Code:

% ls *.L*
ASCII.L2_LACKY  ATT.L\@  ATTT.L2_LAC_SSTTTTT
ATTI.L2_LACCY   ATT.L2   TRUMP.L2_LAC_OCCY

% find . -maxdepth 1 -type f \! -name '[AT]*.L2_LAC_SST*' -a -name '[AT]*.L2_LAC*' -o -name '[AT]*.L2_LAC_OC*'
./ATTI.L2_LACCY
./TRUMP.L2_LAC_OCCY
./ASCII.L2_LACKY