Many at Once

Many at Once: Wildcards: *, ? and [ ], Brace Expansion: Twelve Folders in One Line.

Updated November 10, 2026

1. Wildcards: *, ? and [ ] (Apprentice): A wildcard pattern such as *.jpg stands for every name that fits it, and the shell swaps in those names before the command runs, so echo shows you the list first and one mv moves every photo at once.
2. Brace Expansion: Twelve Folders in One Line (Apprentice): Braces turn one word into many before a command runs, from a list such as {beach,city} or a range such as {01..12}, so mkdir makes a folder for every month in one line and cp file{,.bak} makes a quick backup.