Selecting a Pattern of files in Nautilus (GNOME)
Nautilus, the default File/Desktop Manager of GNOME provides a nifty in-built tool in it to select files and folders more intelligently.
The Pattern select tool is present under Edit > Select Pattern (Shortcut: Ctrl+S). This tool allows one to select files/folders that match a particular pattern. An example of selecting a range of files using this tool can be seen in the following image:
Here I’ve selected all my folders with names starting with a D using the pattern string: D*
This is a really useful tool and one can use it to select a particular file extension amongst other files in a folder, etc. Like say, if you wish to select all JPGs in a given folder, just hit Ctrl+S and type in *.jpg or *.jpeg and all those files will be selected now!
It could get more powerful with the inclusion of Regex, in my opinion, but might be unnecessary since GNOME considers all users dumb anyway 
Wow that is a nice feature! I am seriously loving linux now that I’ve been using it for about 6-8 months. I only go back to windows for Photoshop or Illustrator or some games.
Rohit
21 May 08 at 8:39 am
Hey,
Nice tool. And one question… What is Regex? (No Bashing please… I know I am weird….. :p)
Aditya
21 May 08 at 2:22 pm
Regular Expressions, a neat way to find patterns embedded in text the easy and greedy way.
Wikipedia would explain it better, of course:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expression
Harsh
21 May 08 at 4:24 pm
wildcard patterns suck…
ls *.jpg would do the job better I think
anomit
21 May 08 at 4:53 pm
Why ls when you can put those patterns directly into the post command like mv or rm directly?
Harsh
21 May 08 at 5:01 pm
Oh… I know Regular Expressions. I mean I know what they are. I dunno much though…
Aditya
21 May 08 at 8:15 pm
neat utility, linux is getting laced up with everything one can think of
jit
22 May 08 at 7:18 am
Sigh! Us Windows users have to arrange the contents ‘by type’ and select all like-types.
Gets darn difficult-er with folders
YCR
22 May 08 at 10:35 pm