what is the difference between
git rm *.txt
and
git rm \*.txt
I tried it more than once and appeared to me that this two is equivalent !!
With git rm *.txt, the * is a shell wildcard and expanded by the shell before the git process is even started. By default, shells only expand wildcards in a single directory. Processes never see the asterisk and only get a list of expanded file paths.
However, git rm \*.txt prevents wildcard expansion by the shell and passes the literal argument "asterisk dot txt" to the git process. This is identical to writing git rm '*.txt' or git rm "*.txt".
Git itself will interpret and expand glob patterns (wildcards), but a single asterisk can span multiple directories. Thus, git rm \*.txt will delete all text files in the current directory and in any sub directories.
The difference becomes obvious when you have text files in sub directories:
touch 1.txt 2.txt
mkdir a b c/d
touch a/3.txt b/4.txt c/d/5.txt
git rm *.txt will delete 1.txt and 2.txt and is in fact indistinguishable from git rm 1.txt 2.txt from the git process' point of view.git rm \*.txt will delete all text files (1.txt, 2.txt, 3.txt, 4.txt, and 5.txt).