Use of * in bash

Bash will parse and expand special args before your commands.

Hence echo * will list files in your dir like ls.


Consider the following interresting case copied from SO. A directory has these contents:

• test (regular file)
• test1 (directory)
• test2 (directory)
• test3 (directory)

If you then type `mv *` something seemingly weird happens: test3 is there, but the rest is gone. While weird at first, it makes sense once you understand what bash actually passes to `mv`. Because of the asterisk, bash interprets mv * as mv test test1 test2 test3, and when mv gets that list, it'll assume that the last arguement is the destination, which is where all of the files would've been moved.