>Unlike most every other operating system, UNIX does not let the utility
expand wildcards itself. The shell expands the wildcarded argument to a list
of files that it then passes to the utility.

What an odd way to put it - you make it sound like a disadvantage!  Usually
the problem is thta UNIX doesn't do much for you.  Another way of saying it
is that the shell UNIX expands all the arguments for you so that each
utility doesn't need wildcard code in it.  I found it a pain doing utilities
for DOS prompts after using UNIX.

You can turn off wild card expansion in the shell so it will allow you to
write a utility that does it's own wildcard expansion but only if you know
in advance and turn off the feature - so not that handy.  Or you could write
your own shell.

Peter

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