man-pages/man3p/fnmatch.3p

.\" 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 <fnmatch.h>
.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<fnmatch.h>\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<fnmatch.h>\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<fnmatch.h>\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 .