Using wildcards to match a directory in bash

Question

Lets say the folder structure is like so:

/home/
--user1/asdf
--user2/asdf1234
--user3/asdf325234
--cool/asdf

How could I change to asdf1234 without specifying the user? For example:

cd /home/*/asdf1234

How can I use "not" in bash? For example, lets say I want to go to /home/cool but use not capability:

cd /home/!user*/asdf is this possible?

Are these bash tricks possible?

Hm, are you in fact asking two questions? The first question works as you describe it (if permissions are OK), with the * wildcard. Not in bash may look like ! or ^; check out man bash and search for those. Last, please make an effort to write better titles to your future questions. — Emanuel Berg
– Emanuel Berg, Commented Oct 19, 2012 at 21:17
Your two questions may be related in terms of a problem you're trying to solve (in which case, ask about that problem), but if you think about it from a web search point of view for someone trying to answer one of those two, they're different questions. — EightBitTony
– EightBitTony, Commented Oct 19, 2012 at 22:19

aecolley · Accepted Answer · 2012-10-19 21:23:04Z

6

Turn on the extglob shell option and then cd /home/!(user*)/asdf

answered Oct 19, 2012 at 21:23

aecolley

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pradeepchhetri · Accepted Answer · 2012-10-19 21:23:27Z

0

You can use the following command to change to asdf1234 directory without specifying the username:

cd $(find . -name asdf1234 -type d | sed 1q)

sed 1q ensures that only one directory name is passed as argument to cd.

answered Oct 19, 2012 at 21:23

pradeepchhetri

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2 Answers 2