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Shell globbing lets you match filenames using patterns. While * matches any string and ? matches a single character, square brackets ([ ]) define character classes, enabling you to match one character from a specific set or range.

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Matching a Range of Characters

Given a directory: 
$ ls
fileA fileB fileC fileD fileE
You can match only fileA, fileB, and fileC by specifying a range inside brackets: 
$ ls file[A-C]
fileA fileB fileC
Here, [A-C] matches any uppercase letter from A through C. Note that the dash (-) defines a range and must go from lower to higher: 
$ ls file[C-A]
ls: cannot access 'file[C-A]': No such file or directory

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Common Examples

PatternMatchesDescription
file[A-C]fileA, fileB, fileCUppercase A–C
file[a-c]filea, fileb, filecLowercase a–c
file[1-3]file1, file2, file3Numeric 1–3
file[ACE]fileA, fileC, fileESpecific letters A, C, E

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Negated Character Classes

Prefix ! or ^ inside brackets to exclude characters or ranges: 
$ ls
fileA fileB fileC fileD fileE

$ ls file[^A-C]
fileD fileE

$ ls file[!A-C]
fileD fileE
In Bash both ! and ^ work for negation. POSIX shells require ! at the start of the class.
The image explains that square brackets are special characters in Shell used for creating glob expressions by matching characters inside the brackets.

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Listing Specific Characters

To match non-consecutive filenames such as fileA, fileC, and fileE, simply list them: 
$ ls file[ACE]
fileA fileC fileE

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Case Sensitivity

Globbing in Bash is case sensitive. If you have both uppercase and lowercase files: 
$ touch filea fileb filec filed filee
$ ls
fileA fileB fileC fileD fileE filea fileb filec filed filee
To match only lowercase: 
$ ls file[a-c]
filea fileb filec
To remove both lowercase and uppercase a–e, combine ranges: 
$ rm file[a-eA-E]
$ ls
fileD fileE
When mixing ranges, list them in the order you want matched: here a-e before A-E.

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Numeric Ranges and Negation

Numeric ranges behave the same way: 
$ touch file1 file2 file3 file4 file5
$ ls file[1-3]
file1 file2 file3

$ ls file[4-5]
file4 file5

$ ls file[^1-3]
file4 file5

$ ls file[!1-3]
file4 file5

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Multiple Character Classes

You can chain classes to match multiple positions. For example, to match filea1, filea2, fileb1, fileb2: 
$ touch filea1 filea2 filea3 fileb1 fileb2 fileb3

$ ls file[a-b][1-2]
filea1 filea2 fileb1 fileb2
Each [a-b] matches one letter, and [1-2] matches one digit. If you try only [1-2], it won’t match because the letter is missing: 
$ ls file[1-2]
ls: cannot access 'file[1-2]': No such file or directory

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Literal Characters Inside Brackets

Inside character classes, special glob characters lose their meaning: 
$ ls file[a][*]
ls: cannot access 'file[a][*]': No such file or directory
To use * as a wildcard, place it outside the brackets: 
$ ls filea*
filea1 filea2 filea3
Or constrain both positions: 
$ ls file[a][1-3]
filea1 filea2 filea3

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Globbing vs. File Creation

Globs match existing filenames; they do not generate names. If you use a glob in a command like touch when no files match, the pattern is taken literally: 
$ touch ?ail
$ ls
'?ail'
To produce a series of filenames based on a pattern, consider using brace expansion instead of globs.
Globbing won’t create files—only match them. If you expect new files, use brace expansion or a loop.

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