Using Directories - Commodore PC Ms-Dos 3.2 User's Manual

More About Files and Directories 9
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Important The wildcard abbreviation *.* refers to all files in the
directory. This feature can be both powerful and destructive when
/*—^ used with ms-dos commands. For example, the del command fol
lowed by the wildcard abbreviation *.* deletes all files on the
default drive, regardless of filename or extension.
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In general, you should not use more than one asterisk wildcard in
a command line. For example, if you type the following command,
f~**\ all the files in the directory will be listed, not just those that con
tain the number "1":
—^ dir #1 *
Examples: Using the * wildcard
/*■% Suppose you want to find a certain accounting file but can't
remember its exact name. What you can do is list the directory
entries for all files named accounts in the default directory of
w—w drive A (regardless of their filename extensions). To do this
• ■ quickly, you could just type the following command:
dir a:account5 . *
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Similarly, to list the directory entries for all files with .txt exten
sions or in a directory called reports (regardless of their file-
j^*^ names) on the disk in drive B, type the following command:
dir b:\reports\*.txt
This command is useful if your text files have .txt extensions.
For example, by using the dir command with wildcard characters,
^^ you could get a listing of all your text files — even if you don't
f) remember their filenames. For more information on the dir
command, refer to Chapter 3, "ms-dos Commands."
Using Directories
The following sections describe how to display, change, and
delete any directory. You will also learn how to create directories
**k, and subdirectories.