Why does "dir *.*~" list files in a way different to what is expected?

Question

In my directory I have the files files

• x.dll
• x.lib
• x.pdb
• x.exp
• x.plugin

When I issue the command dir \*.*~ it should say 'File not found' as it does at my friend's laptop. But on my machine it lists the file x.plugin.

Actually after a while of trying I found out that it lists all files with extension longer than 3 characters.

Anybody heard about this behavior before?

Answer 1

Seeing the command dir *.*~, I would assume it lists all files in the directory.

The * placeholder means 'any number of any character'.

If you want to find all files ending in xx~, I would use the command dir *.??~. The '?' means 'any one character'.

At least, this used to be so in the 'old' DOS days...