Question

i tried to google this but can’t find a satisfactory answer. it’s probably very straightforward so apologies if it’s basic stuff

what is the difference bewteen

grep "first" */*html

and

 grep "first" ./*html

i know that dot(.) in the second line stands for ‘current directory’

Answer 1

grep "first" */*html

expands as all html files in all subdirectories (one-level only) from the current dir.

grep "first" ./*html

expands as all html files in the current dir. the ‘./’ is what limits it the the current dir.

EDIT

Per @lisko ‘s comment

Hidden files and directories mean files beginning with the ‘.’ character. If you want to search ALL files, use

grep "first" ./*html ./.*html */*html */.*html

I hope this helps.