Pattern matching notation

A character that is not quoted or any of special characters defined below is a normal character, which matches the character itself.

For example, the pattern abc matches the string abc, and not any other strings.

The character ? matches any single character.

For example, the pattern a?c matches any three-character strings that starts with a and ends with c, such as aac, abc, and a;c.

The character * matches any strings (of any length, including the empty string).

For example, the pattern a*c matches any string that starts with a and ends with c, such as ac, abc, and a;xyz;c.

A pattern that is enclosed by brackets ([ and ]) is a bracket expression. A bracket expression must have at least one character between the brackets. The characters between the brackets are interpreted as a bracket expression pattern, which is a below-defined special notation for bracket expression. A bracket expression pattern represents a set of characters. The bracket expression matches any one of the characters in the set the bracket expression pattern represents.

If the opening bracket ([) is followed by an exclamation mark (!), the exclamation is not treated as part of the bracket expression pattern and the whole bracket expression instead matches a character that is not included in the set the bracket expression pattern represents. If the opening bracket is followed by a caret (^), it is treated like an exclamation mark as above (but shells other than yash may treat the caret differently).

If the opening bracket (or the following exclamation or caret, if any) is followed by a closing bracket (]), it is treated as part of the bracket expression pattern rather than the end of the bracket expression. You cannot quote characters in the bracket expression pattern because quotation is treated before bracket expression.

An opening bracket in a pattern is treated as a normal character if it is not the beginning of a valid bracket expression.

A character that is not any of special characters defined below is a normal character, which represents the character itself.

For example, the bracket expression pattern abc represents the set of the three characters a, b, and c. The bracket expression [abc] therefore matches any of the three characters.

A hyphen preceded and followed by a character (or collating symbol) is a range expression, which represents the set of the two characters and all characters between the two in the collation order. A collation order is an order of characters that is defined in the locale data.

If a hyphen is followed by a closing bracket (]), the bracket is treated as the end of the bracket expression and the hyphen as a normal character.

For example, the range expression 3-5 represents the set of the three characters 3, 4, and 5. The bracket expression [3-5-] therefore matches one of the four characters 3, 4, 5, and -.

A collating symbol allows more than one character to be treated as a single character in matching. A collating symbol is made up of one or more characters enclosed by the special brackets [. and .].

One or more characters that are treated as a single character in matching are called a collating element. Precisely, a bracket expression pattern represents a set of collating elements and a bracket expression matches a collating element rather than a character, but we do not differentiate them for brevity here.

For example, the character combination “ch” was treated as a single character in the traditional Spanish language. If this character combination is registered as a collating element in the locale data, the bracket expression [[.ch.]df] matches one of ch, d, and f.

An equivalence class represents a set of characters that are considered equivalent. A equivalence class is made up of a character (or more precisely, a collating element) enclosed by the special brackets [= and =].

An equivalence class represents the set of characters that consists of the character enclosed by the brackets and the characters that are in the same primary equivalence class as the enclosed character. The shell consults the locale data for the definition of equivalence classes in the current locale.

For example, if the six characters a, à, á, â, ã, ä are defined to be in the same primary equivalence class, the bracket expressions [[=a=]], [[=à=]], and [[=á=]] match one of the six.

A character class represents a predefined set of characters. A character class is made up of a class name enclosed by the special brackets [: and :]. The shell consults the locale data for which class a character belongs to.

The following character classes can be used in all locales:

For example, the bracket expression [[:lower:][:upper:]] matches a lower or upper case character. In addition to the classes listed above, other classes may be used depending on the definition of the current locale.