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There is no limit (other than available memory) to the number of files that may be expanded by a bash glob.

However when those files are passed as arguments to a command that is executed (as opposed to a shell builtin or function), then you may run into a limit of the execve() system call on some systems. On most systems, that system call has a limit on the cumulative size of the arguments and environment passed to it, and also a separate limit on the size of a single arguments.

For more details, see:

• What defines the maximum size for a command single argument?
• CP: max source files number arguments for copy utility

To work around that limit, you can use (assuming GNU xargs or compatible):

printf '%s\0' foo* | xargs -r0 rm -f

Above, since printf is built-in (in bash and most Bourne-like shells), we don't hit the execve() limit. And xargs will split the list of arguments into as many rm invocations as needed to avoid the execve() limitation.

With zsh:

autoload zargs
zargs foo* -- rm -f

With ksh93:

command -x rm -f foo*

There is no limit (other than available memory) to the number of files that may be expanded by a bash glob.

However when those files are passed as arguments to a command that is executed (as opposed to a shell builtin or function), then you may run into a limit of the execve() system call on some systems. On most systems, that system call has a limit on the cumulative size of the arguments and environment passed to it, and on Linux also a separate limit on the size of a single arguments.

For more details, see:

• What defines the maximum size for a command single argument?
• CP: max source files number arguments for copy utility

To work around that limit, you can use (assuming GNU xargs or compatible):

printf '%s\0' foo* | xargs -r0 rm -f

Above, since printf is built-in (in bash and most Bourne-like shells), we don't hit the execve() limit. And xargs will split the list of arguments into as many rm invocations as needed to avoid the execve() limitation.

With zsh:

autoload zargs
zargs foo* -- rm -f

With ksh93:

command -x rm -f foo*

There is no limit (other than available memory) to the number of files that may be expanded by a bash glob.

However when those files are passed as arguments to a command that is executed (as opposed to a shell builtin or function), then you may run into a limit of the execve() system call on some systems. On most systems, that system call has a limit on the cumulative size of the arguments and environment passed to it, and also a separate limit on the size of a single arguments.

For more details, see:

• What defines the maximum size for a command single argument?
• CP: max source files number arguments for copy utility

To work around that limit, you can use (assuming GNU xargs or compatible):

printf '%s\0' foo* | xargs -r0 rm -f

Above, since printf is built-in (in bash and most Bourne-like shells), we don't hit the execve() limit. And xargs will split the list of arguments into as many rm invocations as needed to avoid the execve() limitation.

With zsh:

autoload zargs
zargs foo* -- rm -f

With ksh93:

command -x rm -f foo*

There is no limit (other than available memory) to the number of files that may be expanded by a bash glob.

However when those files are passed as arguments to a command that is executed (as opposed to a shell builtin or function), then you may run into a limit of the execve() system call on some systems. On most systems, that system call has a limit on the cumulative size of the arguments and environment passed to it, and also a separate limit on the size of a single arguments.

For more details, see:

• What defines the maximum size for a command single argument?
• CP: max source files number arguments for copy utility

To work around that limit, you can use (assuming GNU xargs or compatible):

printf '%s\0' foo* | xargs -r0 rm -f

Above, since printf is built-in (in bash and most Bourne-like shells), we don't hit the execve() limit. And xargs will split the list of arguments into as many rm invocations as needed to avoid the execve() limitation.

With zsh:

autoload zargs
zargs foo* -- rm -f

With ksh93:

command -x rm -f foo*

There is no limit (other than available memory) to the number of files that may be expanded by a bash glob.

However when those files are passed as arguments to a command that is executed (as opposed to a shell builtin or function), then you may run into a limit of the execve() system call on some systems. On most systems, that system call has a limit on the cumulative size of the arguments and environment passed to it, and also a separate limit on the size of a single arguments.

For more details, see:

• What defines the maximum size for a command single argument?
• CP: max source files number arguments for copy utility

There is no limit (other than available memory) to the number of files that may be expanded by a bash glob.

However when those files are passed as arguments to a command that is executed (as opposed to a shell builtin or function), then you may run into a limit of the execve() system call on some systems. On most systems, that system call has a limit on the cumulative size of the arguments and environment passed to it, and also a separate limit on the size of a single arguments.

For more details, see:

• What defines the maximum size for a command single argument?
• CP: max source files number arguments for copy utility

To work around that limit, you can use (assuming GNU xargs or compatible):

printf '%s\0' foo* | xargs -r0 rm -f

Above, since printf is built-in (in bash and most Bourne-like shells), we don't hit the execve() limit. And xargs will split the list of arguments into as many rm invocations as needed to avoid the execve() limitation.

With zsh:

autoload zargs
zargs foo* -- rm -f

With ksh93:

command -x rm -f foo*