Single- and multiple-character wildcards still function as
    expected with ODS-5 files. A single-character wildcard represents
    exactly one character in either the file name or file type, but
    may not be used in the file version string. A multiple-character
    wildcard can represent any number of characters starting with
    zero in the file name or file type. A multiple-character wildcard
    can be used in place of a version string.

1  –  Wildcard Characters

    The following characters are wildcard characters when working on
    any OpenVMS 7.2 or later volume:

    o  The asterisk (*) is a multiple-character wildcard.

    o  The percent sign (%) is a single-character wildcard.

    o  The question mark (?) is a single-character wildcard.

    The percent sign (%) continues to be a single-character wildcard
    to maintain compatibility with existing applications. The percent
    sign (%) may be used as a literal character when preceded by
    the circumflex (^) and is also a literal character in Windows NT
    file names. Therefore, in addition to the percent sign, RMS also
    recognizes the question mark (?) as a single character wildcard.
    The question mark functions identically to the percent sign as
    a wildcard character on OpenVMS 7.2 and later. The percent sign
    and the question mark matches exactly one character in a search
    pattern.

2  –  Wildcard Syntax

    Although DCL preserves the case of extended file names, wildcard
    matching is case blind.

    When you perform a search operation with wildcards it continues
    to match only against the corresponding character in the same
    part of the target specification. The following table contains
    examples of some wildcard searches.

    The
    pattern...     matches...             ...but doesn't match

    A*B;*          AHAB.;1                A.B;1
    A.*.B*         A^.DISK.BLOCK;1        A^.C^.B.DAT;1
    A?B.TXT;*      A^.B.TXT;5             A^.^.B.TXT;1
    *.DAT          Lots^.of^.Periods.dat;1DAT.;1
    Mil?no.dat     Milano.dat;1           Millaano.dat;1
    NAPOLI.?.DAT   napoli.q.dat;1         napoli.abc77.dat;1