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# 8  
Old 02-11-2005
Post the output of:
echo "a*" a1
echo a* a1
# 9  
Old 02-11-2005
heres the o/p from echo:

dsadm@punbi1:/apps/dsadm/Practice/abhi/unix> echo a* a1

a1 a11 a1s a1sd a2 a3 a4 a5 ans as a1

dsadm@punbi1:/apps/dsadm/Practice/abhi/unix> echo "a*" a1

a* a1
# 10  
Old 02-11-2005
OK, you type:
grep a* a1
The shell (not the kernel) sees that a* and tries to expand it. This results in:
grep a1 a11 a1s a1sd a2 a3 a4 a5 ans as a1

The grep command sees the first a1 as the pattern. So it searches for "a1" in the files: a11 a1s a1sd a2 a3 a4 a5 ans as a1.
# 11  
Old 02-11-2005
do the files other than a11,a1s,a1 contain character "a" in them ??
i do n't think so.
That's the reason why those are not shown.
# 12  
Old 02-11-2005
hey thanks brother

but ur simple answer made me look stupid !

so it is actually left to the kernel to interpret the metachars in case of grep coming eith a " " for the pattern, is it?
# 13  
Old 02-11-2005
The kernel doesn't know anything about metacharacters, but I don't really follow this question. If you don't quote a metacharacter, the shell will try to expand it. Quote the metacharacter and shell will leave it alone. So in:
grep "a*" filename
the grep command itself must deal with the asterisk. To the kernel * is just another character.
# 14  
Old 02-15-2005
perderabo has answered my query..plz look into his explaination..thanks anyways
 
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