### Metacharacters

Certain characters have special meaning to the directory services; these are known as metacharacters. The table below lists and explains the CDS, GDS, and DNS metacharacters.

Metacharacters and Their Meaning

Directory Service | Character | Meaning
CDS | / * ? \ | Separates elements of a name (simple names). When used in the rightmost simple name of a name entered in a cdscp show or list command, acts as a wildcard, matching zero or more characters. When used in the rightmost simple name of a name entered in a cdscp show or list command, acts as a wildcard, matching exactly one character. Used where necessary in front of * (asterisk) or ? (question mark) to escape the character (indicates that the following character is not a metacharacter).
GDS | / , = \ | Separates RDNs. Separates multiple attribute type/value pairs (attribute value assertions) within an RDN. Separates an attribute type and value in an attribute value assertion. Used in front of / (slash), , (comma), or = (equal sign) to escape the character (indicates that the following character is not a metacharacter).
DNS | . | Separates elements of a name.

Some metacharacters are not permitted as normal characters within a name. For example, a \ (backslash) cannot be used as anything but an escape character in GDS. You can use other metacharacters as normal characters in a name, provided that you escape them with the backslash metacharacter.

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