Special Characters

* Matches any string including an empty string. For example, "x*z" will match "xyz" and "xz". ? Matches any single character. For example, "a?c" will match "abc" but not "ac".

[...] Matches any one of the characters enclosed by the left and right brackets.

A pair of characters separated by a hyphen (- ) specifies a range of characters to be matched. If the first character following a left bracket ( [ ) is an exclamation point (!) or a caret (^), the rest of the characters are not matched. Any character not enclosed in the brackets is matched. A hyphen (-) or right bracket (]) may be matched by including it as the first or last character in a bracketed set. For example, "x[a - d]y" matches "xby"-) or right bracket (]) may be matched by including it as the first or last character in a bracketed set. For example, "x[a - d]y" matches but not "xey" while "x[!a - d]y" matches "xey" but not "xby". If you want to use an * or ? or [ in a pattern, you must precede it with the escape character (that is, a backslash \ ).

If you use * rather than “*” to indicate all files, a UNIX shell expands it into a series of items and passes this series as a group of options to the stcmd command. This can cause problems (for example, when you are checking out missing files) so it is best to use "*" and avoid unwanted complications. If you use a set of file patterns, each pattern should be enclosed in its own set of quotation marks. For example, you can use "*.bat" "*.c", but you cannot use "*.bat *.c".

These special characters also apply to the files... option available in some commands.

If -p is used without quotes (""), then use the following special characters. However, note that this is not a recommended practice.

If any of the variables used with this option contain characters that are used as delimiters, use the percent sign (%) followed by the hex code for each of those characters. For example, if “@” appears as a character in a password, you must replace it with "%40". Replace the following:

For ":" use "%3a"
For "/" use "%2f"
For "@" use "%40"
For "%" use "%25

In UNIX and other operating systems, some special characters must be preceded by a backslash "\" or another escape character. In the -p option, you can replace such characters with hex codes. For example, "%3c" could be used in UNIX instead of "\<". Replace the following:

For a space use "%20"
For "<" use "%3c"
For ">" use "%3e