Suppose you want to delete your processed data files, and only keep your raw files and processing script to save storage. The raw files end in .dat and the processed files end in .txt. Which of the following would remove all the processed data files, and only the processed data files?
The 4th answer given is rm *.* and the explanation is
The shell would expand *.* to match all files with any extension, so this command would delete all files
But extensions are optional so if the folder contained a file called, say, my.filename then filename is not an extension but it would still be deleted. It also wouldn't delete all files - it's fairly standard for compiled binaries to not have extensions in Linux so those would be missed. I think a better wording might be something like
The shell expands *.* to match all filenames containing at least one ., so this command would delete all such files which would include all .dat and .txt files.
gcapes
commented
11 months ago
In 'Pipes and Filters' for the exercise
The 4th answer given is
rm *.*and the explanation isBut extensions are optional so if the folder contained a file called, say,
my.filenamethenfilenameis not an extension but it would still be deleted. It also wouldn't delete all files - it's fairly standard for compiled binaries to not have extensions in Linux so those would be missed. I think a better wording might be something like