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| 1 | +--- |
| 2 | +ms.date: 05/17/2019 |
| 3 | +schema: 2.0.0 |
| 4 | +locale: en-us |
| 5 | +keywords: powershell,cmdlet |
| 6 | +title: about_Execution_Search |
| 7 | +--- |
| 8 | + |
| 9 | +# Command Path Precedence |
| 10 | + |
| 11 | +## Short description |
| 12 | + |
| 13 | +When you run command by path, |
| 14 | +such as `./myScript.ps1` PowerShell has a process that it uses to search for the script. |
| 15 | +This document describes how PowerShell does that search. |
| 16 | + |
| 17 | +## Long description |
| 18 | + |
| 19 | +### Limiting the search to the current directory |
| 20 | + |
| 21 | +To tell PowerShell that you want to search for the script in the current folder, |
| 22 | +you should specify the prefix `.\`. |
| 23 | +This will limit the search for commands to files in the current folder. |
| 24 | +Without this prefix, |
| 25 | +other PowerShell syntax may conflict and there are few guarantees that the file will be found. |
| 26 | + |
| 27 | +### Using Wildcards in Execution |
| 28 | + |
| 29 | +> [!NOTE] |
| 30 | +> Using wildcard characters is sometimes referred to as *globbing*. |
| 31 | +
|
| 32 | +You may use wildcards in command execution. |
| 33 | +PowerShell supports the following wildcards. |
| 34 | + |
| 35 | +| Wildcard character | Description | Example | Matches | Does not match | |
| 36 | +|--------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------|----------|------------------|----------------| |
| 37 | +| * | Matches zero or more characters, starting at the specified position | a* | A, ag, Apple | | |
| 38 | +| ? | Matches any character at the specified position | ?n | An, in, on | ran | |
| 39 | +| [ ] | Matches a range of characters | [a-l]ook | book, cook, look | took | |
| 40 | +| [ ] | Matches the specified characters | [bc]ook | book, cook | look | |
| 41 | + |
| 42 | +### Path Precedence |
| 43 | + |
| 44 | +PowerShell will execute a file that has a wildcard match, before a literal match. |
| 45 | + |
| 46 | +For example, consider a directory with the following files: |
| 47 | + |
| 48 | +``` |
| 49 | +a.ps1 |
| 50 | +[a1].ps1 |
| 51 | +``` |
| 52 | + |
| 53 | +Then, you are in PowerShell and have `Set-Location` to this folder. |
| 54 | +You run `[a1].ps1`, the file `a.ps1`, |
| 55 | +even though the file `[a1].ps1` matches this based on the literal match. |
| 56 | + |
| 57 | +However, if the directory looked like this: |
| 58 | + |
| 59 | +``` |
| 60 | +b.ps1 |
| 61 | +[a1].ps1 |
| 62 | +``` |
| 63 | + |
| 64 | +and you execute `[b1].ps1` because there is no literal match, |
| 65 | +but `b.ps1` matches based on the wildcard, `b.ps1` will be executed. |
| 66 | + |
| 67 | +## See also |
| 68 | + |
| 69 | +- [about_Command_Precedence](about_Command_Precedence.md) |
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