OT (ish): How to copy hidden files/directories

[Robert P. J. Day]

On Sat, 9 Oct 2004, Chuck_Sterling wrote:

> CB wrote:
>
>> I can't figure out how to do this: copy (or move) all the hidden files
>> and directories contained in one directory to another directory.
>>
>> Is it as embarrasingly simple as I imagine it must be?
>
> Go to the source directory, then
>
> find . -print | cpio -pmud <dest>
>
> If you want it verbose, use
>
> find . -print | cpio -pmudv <dest>
>
> These preserve permissions and such during the copy...

when i teach my intro linux course, this is one of the exercises i 
assign:

   1) using only the regular shell wildcards, come up with a way to 
match *everything* in the current directory (files, dirs, hidden, 
non-hidden), with the exception of the two entries "." and "..".

and the answer is ... ?

rday

p.s.  this is command independent, nothing to do with "find".  it's 
strictly a pattern-matching exercise using wildcards.