Bash Expansion

Bash brace expansion "autofills" some commands for you.

Create Multiple files

touch file{1,2,3,4}.txt - Expands to:

 file1.txt
 file2.txt
 file3.txt
 file4.txt

So, we can use a comma to separate the stuff we want to expand. Can we do ranges, I don't want to type all that?

We sure can!!

touch file{1..6}.txt - Expands to:

 file1.txt
 file2.txt
 file3.txt
 file4.txt
 file5.txt
 file6.txt

Save Typing

/a/long/path/{foo,bar} expands to: /a/long/path/foo /a/long/path/bar (Handy for copy commands...)

Make a backup copy of a file:
cp -a /home/user/public_html/test.txt{,.bak} - is the same as typing: cp -a /home/user/public_html/test.txt /home/user/public_html/test.txt.bak

References

• devopservice tutorial