++ Well spotted.

If I add fidlee:

$ ls -1 a/b/c/d/e
'f:i-:l;e'
'fi:l;e'
'f-i:l;e'
'f-i-:l;e'
fi:le
fidlee
[download]

I get an additional line in the output:

*** Files matching 'a/b/c/d/e/fi l e':
'a/b/c/d/e/fi:l;e'
a/b/c/d/e/fidlee
[download]

Changing y/ /?/ to s/ /[\\;:,-]/g fixes this. I've updated my post.

>

    
    $datum =~ s/ /[\\;:,-]/g;
    system("ls -1 $datum");'
[download]

I have no linux to test at hand, but does ls really support regex-character classes?

the -1 option doesn't seem to activate this https://www.man7.org/linux/man-pages/man1/ls.1.html

and I'm confused why ls should support something above globbing ...

plz enlighten me! :)

Cheers Rolf
_{(addicted to the Perl Programming Language :)
Wikisyntax for the Monastery}

does ls really support regex-character classes?

It isn't ls which supports it, but the shell's globbing. All shell globs support character classes inside square brackets. Well, all Bourne-like shells anyway.

---

🦛

I see ++hippo has provided an answer.

For full documentation of what's happening, see man bash; follow the EXPANSION link; scroll down (lots) to "Pathname Expansion" for screenfuls of information.

— Ken