Amiga World Official AmigaDOS 2 Companion - eBook-ENG

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AmigaWorld Official AmigaDOS 2 Companion copies any file that has a c in its name and any file ending with er.

(): You use parentheses to group patterns together to form a larger pattern. For example, COPY let#?(txtldoc) to RAM:

matches all files whose names begin with let, are followed by any number of any characters, and end with either txt or doc. %: The percent sign matches a null string. It is used most often with the verti cal bar when you are not sure that a filename will have a certain number of characters. For example, COPY (alol째/o)pict#? to RAM:

copies to RAM: any files whose names begin with apict, opict, or pict.

': The apostrophe is used to call off pattern matching. It indicates that the character that follows should be taken literally and not as a pattern. For ex ample, if you wish to list the contents of a directory named Budgets?, you can enter

DIR Budgets'?

The apostrophe indicates that the question mark is part of the filename and not a pattern for matching.

^: The tilde negates the following pattern. For example, DIR-#?.info

lists all the files that do not have .info extensions.

Pattern matching using wildcard characters is a very powerful feature. It lets you use a single command, such as Copy, Type, or Delete, to act on many files at once.

Console Window If you are familiar with pattern matching on other computers, you know that the asterisk (*) is the most common wildcard character on other systems. On the Amiga, the asterisk has a different meaning; it refers to the current Shell window.


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