.\" Copyright (c) 2001-2003 The Open Group, All Rights Reserved .TH "FNMATCH" 3P 2003 "IEEE/The Open Group" "POSIX Programmer's Manual" .\" fnmatch .SH NAME fnmatch \- match a filename or a pathname .SH SYNOPSIS .LP \fB#include .br .sp int fnmatch(const char *\fP\fIpattern\fP\fB, const char *\fP\fIstring\fP\fB, int\fP \fIflags\fP\fB); .br \fP .SH DESCRIPTION .LP The \fIfnmatch\fP() function shall match patterns as described in the Shell and Utilities volume of IEEE\ Std\ 1003.1-2001, Section 2.13.1, Patterns Matching a Single Character, and Section 2.13.2, Patterns Matching Multiple Characters. It checks the string specified by the \fIstring\fP argument to see if it matches the pattern specified by the \fIpattern\fP argument. .LP The \fIflags\fP argument shall modify the interpretation of \fIpattern\fP and \fIstring\fP. It is the bitwise-inclusive OR of zero or more of the flags defined in \fI\fP. If the FNM_PATHNAME flag is set in \fIflags\fP, then a slash character ( \fB'/'\fP ) in \fIstring\fP shall be explicitly matched by a slash in \fIpattern\fP; it shall not be matched by either the asterisk or question-mark special characters, nor by a bracket expression. If the FNM_PATHNAME flag is not set, the slash character shall be treated as an ordinary character. .LP If FNM_NOESCAPE is not set in \fIflags\fP, a backslash character ( \fB'\\'\fP ) in \fIpattern\fP followed by any other character shall match that second character in \fIstring\fP. In particular, \fB"\\\\"\fP shall match a backslash in \fIstring\fP. If FNM_NOESCAPE is set, a backslash character shall be treated as an ordinary character. .LP If FNM_PERIOD is set in \fIflags\fP, then a leading period ( \fB'.'\fP ) in \fIstring\fP shall match a period in \fIpattern\fP; as described by rule 2 in the Shell and Utilities volume of IEEE\ Std\ 1003.1-2001, Section 2.13.3, Patterns Used for Filename Expansion where the location of "leading" is indicated by the value of FNM_PATHNAME: .IP " *" 3 If FNM_PATHNAME is set, a period is "leading" if it is the first character in \fIstring\fP or if it immediately follows a slash. .LP .IP " *" 3 If FNM_PATHNAME is not set, a period is "leading" only if it is the first character of \fIstring\fP. .LP .LP If FNM_PERIOD is not set, then no special restrictions are placed on matching a period. .SH RETURN VALUE .LP If \fIstring\fP matches the pattern specified by \fIpattern\fP, then \fIfnmatch\fP() shall return 0. If there is no match, \fIfnmatch\fP() shall return FNM_NOMATCH, which is defined in \fI\fP. If an error occurs, \fIfnmatch\fP() shall return another non-zero value. .SH ERRORS .LP No errors are defined. .LP \fIThe following sections are informative.\fP .SH EXAMPLES .LP None. .SH APPLICATION USAGE .LP The \fIfnmatch\fP() function has two major uses. It could be used by an application or utility that needs to read a directory and apply a pattern against each entry. The \fIfind\fP utility is an example of this. It can also be used by the \fIpax\fP utility to process its \fIpattern\fP operands, or by applications that need to match strings in a similar manner. .LP The name \fIfnmatch\fP() is intended to imply \fIfilename\fP match, rather than \fIpathname\fP match. The default action of this function is to match filenames, rather than pathnames, since it gives no special significance to the slash character. With the FNM_PATHNAME flag, \fIfnmatch\fP() does match pathnames, but without tilde expansion, parameter expansion, or special treatment for a period at the beginning of a filename. .SH RATIONALE .LP This function replaced the REG_FILENAME flag of \fIregcomp\fP() in early proposals of this volume of IEEE\ Std\ 1003.1-2001. It provides virtually the same functionality as the \fIregcomp\fP() and \fIregexec\fP() functions using the REG_FILENAME and REG_FSLASH flags (the REG_FSLASH flag was proposed for \fIregcomp\fP(), and would have had the opposite effect from FNM_PATHNAME), but with a simpler function and less system overhead. .SH FUTURE DIRECTIONS .LP None. .SH SEE ALSO .LP \fIglob\fP() , \fIwordexp\fP() , the Base Definitions volume of IEEE\ Std\ 1003.1-2001, \fI\fP, the Shell and Utilities volume of IEEE\ Std\ 1003.1-2001 .SH COPYRIGHT Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2003 Edition, Standard for Information Technology -- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base Specifications Issue 6, Copyright (C) 2001-2003 by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc and The Open Group. In the event of any discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard is the referee document. The original Standard can be obtained online at http://www.opengroup.org/unix/online.html .