Linux: double asterisk

Self-tutoring about Linux and Bash: the tutor mentions the double asterisk expression.

In articles I’ve been consulting about Linux and Github, I’ve been seeing ** in paths. What does **, aka the double asterisk, mean?

As I understand, ** is a wild card that means “one or more directories.” Therefore, if the top directory is dir_one, then dir_one/**/hello.txt would include dir_one/hello.txt but also dir_one/a/b/c/hello.txt.

Yet, apparently ** doesn’t always work on a given shell, at least not without the option to allow it being set.

Source:

gist.github.com

stackoverflow.com

Jack of Oracle Tutoring by Jack and Diane, Campbell River, BC.

Leave a Reply