Linux and Unix Shell Programming

4.2. Using the ?

Use the ? to match any single character. Here we list filenames where the first two characters can be any character, followed by an ‘R’, followed by any string:

						$ ls ??R* 
BAREAD
					

In the following example, we list files that start with ‘conf’, followed by any two characters, followed by ‘.log’:

						$ ls conf.??.log 
conf12.log conf.23.log 
conf25.log
					

To match all filenames that start with ‘f’, followed by any two characters, followed by any string; the end character must be an ‘s’:

						$ ls f??*s 
ftpaccess      ftpconversions 
ftpgroups      ftphosts 
ftpusers