# Wildcard Subscriptions

## Star Wildcard

Both EMS and SmartSockets interpret the star character (*) as a wildcard—but with different semantics. EMS accepts star only as a whole element, which matches a whole element. In contrast, SmartSockets accepts star as part of an element, matching a substring within the element.

When a SmartSockets client subscribes to `foo.bar`*, then configure `tibemsd` to export the superset `foo`.*; RTserver narrows the set by delivering only messages that match subscribers. For a full discussion of the differences between EMS and SmartSockets wildcards, see Destination Name—Syntax and Semantics.

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