Comment 2 for bug 1609063

The requirement for * is obvious - if you want to find files that begin from 'a' and asterisks will be added implicitly then you will get a lot of unwanted files in search even if you type a* - it will search for *a* in that case. Although it might be viable to add asterisks only in case if there is no wildcards in search but if that is the case then you again aren't able to do exact search for some file, it will show all similar named files. So in short, it might be possible to make mentioned behavior, but only as an optional feature, and probably it should be noted in the search window.

As for field for search - that behavior was requested, and that's how many other file managers which have a search feature usually behave. So again, clearing the form might be added as a feature option.