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test.htm
test2.html
test3.htmasdflkjasdgf

C:\Users\ns\test>dir *.htm /X
 Volume in drive C has no label.
 Volume Serial Number is 509B-CBCC

 Directory of C:\Users\ns\test

12/04/2014  11:31 AM                 9              test.htm
12/04/2014  11:32 AM                11 TEST2~1.HTM  test2.html
12/04/2014  11:32 AM                11 TEST3~1.HTM  test3.htmasdflkjasdgf
               3 File(s)             31 bytes

ls *.htm

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.3.9600]
(c) 2013 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Users\jeremy.falcon>cd C:\windows
C:\Windows>dir *.lo
 Volume in drive C has no label.
 Volume Serial Number is 0000-0000

 Directory of C:\Windows

File Not Found

C:\Windows>dir *.log
 Volume in drive C has no label.
 Volume Serial Number is 0000-0000

 Directory of C:\Windows

03/17/2014  09:02 PM             2,664 DtcInstall.log
11/18/2014  09:03 AM           613,588 PFRO.log
11/18/2014  09:31 AM             3,405 setupact.log
09/24/2014  08:29 AM                 0 setuperr.log
09/29/2013  10:20 PM             5,446 vmgcoinstall.log
12/03/2014  08:24 PM         1,947,077 WindowsUpdate.log
               6 File(s)      2,572,180 bytes
               0 Dir(s)  386,710,196,224 bytes free

C:\Windows>

c:\>dir *.*
 Volume in drive C has no label.
 Volume Serial Number is 0000-0000

 Directory of c:\

11/25/2014  02:35 PM    <DIR>          Code
12/04/2014  11:09 AM                 0 cp.logger
08/22/2013  09:22 AM    <DIR>          PerfLogs
11/18/2014  09:48 AM    <DIR>          Program Files
12/03/2014  09:44 AM    <DIR>          Program Files (x86)
03/18/2014  07:59 AM    <DIR>          Users
11/18/2014  09:59 AM    <DIR>          Windows
               1 File(s)              0 bytes
               6 Dir(s)  386,709,864,448 bytes free

c:\>dir *.lo
 Volume in drive C has no label.
 Volume Serial Number is 0000-0000

 Directory of c:\

File Not Found

c:\>dir *.log
 Volume in drive C has no label.
 Volume Serial Number is 0000-0000

 Directory of c:\

12/04/2014  11:09 AM                 0 cp.logger
               1 File(s)              0 bytes
               0 Dir(s)  386,709,864,448 bytes free

c:\>ren cp.logger cp.lo

c:\>dir *.lo
 Volume in drive C has no label.
 Volume Serial Number is 0000-0000

 Directory of c:\

12/04/2014  11:09 AM                 0 cp.lo
               1 File(s)              0 bytes
               0 Dir(s)  386,709,839,872 bytes free

c:\>

Gary Wheeler wrote:

you can turn short filename generation off

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/oldnewthing/archive/2007/12/17/6785519.aspx[^]:

But some quirks of the FCB matching algorithm persist into Win32 because they have become idiom.

For example, if your pattern ends in .*, the .* is ignored. Without this rule, the pattern *.* would match only files that contained a dot, which would break probably 90% of all the batch files on the planet, as well as everybody's muscle memory, since everybody running Windows NT 3.1 grew up in a world where *.* meant all files.

As another example, a pattern that ends in a dot doesn't actually match files which end in a dot; it matches files with no extension. And a question mark can match zero characters if it comes immediately before a dot.

There may be other weird Win32 pattern matching quirks, but those are the two that come to mind right away, and they both exist to maintain batch file compatibility with the old 8.3 file pattern matching algorithm.

Richard Deeming wrote:

everybody running Windows NT 3.1 grew up in a world where *.* meant
all files.

PIEBALDconsult wrote:

Ah, but I cut my teeth in VMS, where *.* does mean there must be a dot

Jeremy Falcon wrote:

no files without an extension

Jeremy Falcon wrote:

rather than base it on an extension

Jeremy Falcon wrote:

it's gonna have a text file icon on it.

PIEBALDconsult wrote:

In DOS (and *nix?), there is basically ony one "type" of file -- a sequence of bytes -- which, at best, can be categorized as either "binary" or "text", but the OS makes no actual distinction.

PIEBALDconsult wrote:

The OpenVMS Record Management System has many attributes for files, and even a "text" file may use CRLF, LF, or CR for newline, it may have Fortran control characters, it could have fixed-size records. The OS knows these things and can act appropriately.