Brace expansion is enabled via the "set -B" command and the "-B" command line option to the shell and disabled via "set +B" and "+B" on the command line. Some examples and what they expand to: {aa,bb,cc,dd} => aa bb cc dd {0..12} => 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 {3..-2} => 3 2 1 0 -1 -2 {a..g} => a b c d e f g {g..a} => g f e d c b a a{0..3}b => a0b a1b a2b a3b {a,b{1..3},c} => a b1 b2 b3 c for i in {0..19} do echo $i done for i in {a..z} do echo $i done # rm /a/long/path/foo /a/long/path/bar # rm /a/long/path/{foo,bar}