Why do the results of the find command differ when the path is . and when it is ./*?

Question

When I type find . -name "so*" I get all these results:

./sort
./.cache/evolution/sources
./.config/evolution/sources
./.local/share/sounds 

But when I type find ./* -name "so*" I only get ./sort.

From what I know when I use . in the command I am asking to find files that begin with "so" in my current directory, but when I use ./* it displays only the ./sort file and doesn't display the hidden files, so I am wondering what adding /* actually does and how it changes my query/instruction.

Answer 1

find . means search from the current directory.

find ./* means search from all files and directories in the current directory that are matched by a *.

However, the * is expanded by the shell, so that find thinks you really typed a command like:

find ./sort ./another-dir ./another-file ./etc -name "so*"

Your observation is correct. By default, a leading * excludes files or directories beginning with a ., so they are never even seen by find. This is not just hidden files, but also the current and parent directories, so .* usually isn't a good idea!