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Full Discussion: "test*" file creation.
Top Forums Shell Programming and Scripting "test*" file creation. Post 302707539 by elixir_sinari on Friday 28th of September 2012 11:31:32 PM
Old 09-29-2012
You need to know that whenever you type in anything on the command line, your shell interprets the command line first and then the corresponding commands are called.
  • When your current directory is empty and you issue the command touch test*:

    The * character is special to the shell; it's a wildcard which tries to match 0 or more occurrences of any character. So, test* tries to match file-names (in the current directory) starting with test followed by 0 or more occurrences of any character. Since the shell cannot find any such file-names, the pattern is not expanded and the command line remains touch test* and thus, touch creates the file test*.

  • rm *

    Now, * matches test* and the command line becomes rm test* and the file is removed.

  • touch test1* test2*

    No file-names match the 2 patterns and the command-line remains as touch test1* test2* and the 2 files are created.

  • touch test*

    Now, test* matches the 2 files created by 3. So, the command-line becomes touch test1* test2* and the modification and access times of these 2 files are changed by touch.
    If you need to create a file name test*, you'll have the escape interpretation of * by the shell by using one of the following ways (or their variations):
    • touch test\*,or
    • touch test'*'
It is dangerous to include * in file-names.

Last edited by elixir_sinari; 09-29-2012 at 11:19 AM..
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