The ll command + metacharacters


 
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# 1  
Old 09-04-2010
The ll command + metacharacters

Hello. I am learning how to use Unix through an online course. Unfortunately the text that we use isn't very good, so I could use some help with a pretty basic question.

  • Use metacharacters and the ll command to list all filenames under the datafiles directory that contain a dot "." with the letter 'a' anywhere after the dot.
So far, I've figured out
  • ll datafiles \.
But I'm not sure how to look for a character after the dot. For that mater, I'm not sure how to list files containing a certain character. I know that
  • a*
will list files beginning with a, and that using brackets will list a range of characters, but neither of those is what I'm looking for.
# 2  
Old 09-04-2010
I assume that 'll' is an alias for 'ls -l' (long listing). If that is the case then the file globbing pattern:

*.*a* should find all files that have a dot in the name with an 'a' after the dot.

Last edited by agama; 09-04-2010 at 10:10 PM.. Reason: typo
# 3  
Old 09-04-2010
Well that clears that up. Thank you for the help Smilie
 
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