To the commands in this package, a filename is just a string of characters. The dot has no special meaning—it's just another character—so there is no concept of a ``file extension''. This is consistent with Win32 filesystems, OS/2's HPFS, and with Unix and Linux filesystems.
Note that ``*.*'' will not match a filename that doesn't contain a dot. The pattern ``*'' matches any filename. The pattern ``*.*'' matches any filename that contains a dot. This is important to remember!
Note, however, that this is consistent across the DOS, Win32, and OS/2 versions of these utilities, unlike any of the native DOS, Win32, and OS/2 commands such as DIR and COPY. This is also consistent with native Unix and Linux commands.
Either a \
(backslash) or /
(forward slash) character
may be used as a filename path separator on the command lines of these
utilities. UNC-style names may also be entered with either backslashes
or forward slashes.
When one of these commands prints a path name, it uses the last path
separator character that it finds on the last path name in its command
line arguments. If you use \
then these commands print path
names using \
; if you use /
then these commands print
path names using /
.
If there are no path separators at all in any of the path names on the
command line, then these commands print path names using /
as
the default path separator. If you prefer \
to be used as the
default output path separator in this case, then set the
USEP environment variable to \
.