Supported Wildcards for the IBM i File System Agent

You can use a wildcard to represent one or more characters when you define the content for backups and filters for a subclient.

Note

If the subclient content consists of wildcard characters and no eligible files are found for the backup, the backup operation can still successfully complete.

Wildcards	Description	Examples
*	Any number of characters. Use this wildcard in the following scenarios Back up all files of a specific extension Back up all files under a specific directory Back up all files with a specific file extension that start with the pattern	`.doc` backs up or filters all files that have a .doc file extension (for example, status.doc, mission.doc) on all partitions and paths on the client computer. `/Test/.doc` backs up all that have a .doc file extension in the /Test directory. `a.so` backs up all files that have the .so file extension, and start with the letter "a" (for example, alsvc.so, advdcc.so). /`Finance/Test` backs up all the files and directories that start with the string "Test" under the /Finance directory.
?	A single character. Use this wildcard in the following scenario: All files (or directories) that match the character pattern before and after the ? Tip: To match multiple characters, use a ? for each character that you want to match.	`/access?` backs up or filters any directory or file that starts with the string "access", followed by one character (for example, access1 or access5). `/Class/report?` backs up any directory or file under the /Class directory that starts with the string "report" and contains one character after the string (for example, "report1").
[]	A range of characters.	`/[a-m]` backs up or filters all files that start with the letters a-m on the / (root) partition. `/[AEIOU].doc` backs up files that have a .doc file extension and that start with the letters "A", "E", "I", "O", or "U". `/Finance/report[1-47-9]` backs up the following files in the /Finance directory: report1 report2 report4 report7 report8 report9 `/Department-[A-CS]` backs up the following files: Department-A Department-B Department-C Department-S
[!]	The negation of a set or range of characters. Use the wildcard in the following scenario: Back up all files in a directory that do not match the characters specified in the wildcard	`/root/[!AEIOU]*.doc` backs up or filters files that have a .doc file extension in the /root directory and that start with a letter other than the letters "A", "E", "I", "O", or "U".
**	Any number of characters across any number of path levels.	`//move.cpp` - backs up or filters the file named move.cpp that is in any directory. (for example, /root/newapp/move.cpp and /opt/kde3/src/move.cpp) /etc/ - backs up all directories and files under the /etc directory. All sub-directories are included in the backup.
***	Applies only to filters and exceptions. Use this wildcard in the following scenarios: To filter the directory/library and the objects that are under it. To add an exception to the filter.	The filter `/QSYS.LIB/ABC.LIB/*` filters the library ABC and the library contents. The filter `QSYS.LIB/` and the exception `/QSYS.LIB/ABC.LIB/**` backs up the ABC library and all the contents of that library.