Choosing by pattern, and finding files

You do not type the names of a hundred files one by one. The shell reads * in a name as "anything" and, before running the command, replaces it with the file names that match: *.txt is every .txt file in this folder.

1ls *.txt
2rm cache/*.bak
3find src -name "*.py"
4find . -name "README*"

* looks only at the folder you are in (or the one you wrote); it does not go into subfolders. To search every subfolder you use find: first where to start, then with -name the name pattern wanted.

Before deleting, try the same pattern with ls: ls build/*.tmp shows what would go, and typing rm with that pattern comes after. The habit keeps you from deleting the wrong files with the wrong pattern.

Tasks