If .* is being used to grab data, or in a regex that's just there to verify if something's correct, it is bad most of the time.

BUT... If s/// is used, .* often is the right choice.

s!^.*/!!
[download]

Please don't use [\s\S]* or [\d\D]* etc because someone told you .* is bad. You can use .* if you know it's right. (btw, . doesn't match \n unless /s is used, [\d\D] and friends do match \n).

Summary: if you know what it does, and it does what you want, .* is not bad.

2;0 juerd@ouranos:~$ perl -e'undef christmas'
Segmentation fault
2;139 juerd@ouranos:~$
[download]

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