On Sun, Oct 08, 2017 at 07:56:20AM -0400, Robert P. J. Day wrote: > but as i asked in my earlier post, if i wanted to remove *all* files > with names of "Makefile*", why can't i use: > > $ git rm 'Makefile*' > > just as i used: > > $ git rm '*.c' > > are those not both acceptable fileglobs? why does the former clearly > only match the top-level Makefile, and refuse to cross directory > boundaries? Maybe think about it this way: The only difference between git's globbing and the default shell globbing is that the '/' in a path has a special meaning. The shells expansion stops at a '/' but git does not. So with *.c the shell matches: blabla.c, blub.c, ... but not subdir/bla.c, subdir/blub.c, ... since it only considers files in the current directory. A little different for Makefile* that will also match Makefile.bla, Makefile/bla or Makefile_bla/blub in shell but not subdir/Makefile or bla.Makefile. Basically anything directly in *this* directory that *starts* with 'Makefile'. Git on the other hand does not consider '/' to be special. So *.c matches all of the path above: bla.c, blub.c, subdir/bla.c, subdir/blub.c. Basically any file below the current directory with a path that ends in '.c'. With Makefile* it is the opposite: Every file below the current directory that *starts* with 'Makefile'. So Makefile.bla, Makefile/bla, ... but also not subdir/Makefile or bla.Makefile. Maybe that helps... Cheers Heiko
