xref: /illumos-gate/usr/src/man/man3c/fnmatch.3c (revision 9b9d39d2a32ff806d2431dbcc50968ef1e6d46b2)
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47.Dd August 14, 2017
48.Dt FNMATCH 3C
49.Os
50.Sh NAME
51.Nm fnmatch
52.Nd match filename or path name
53.Sh LIBRARY
54.Lb libc
55.Sh SYNOPSIS
56.In fnmatch.h
57.Ft int
58.Fo fnmatch
59.Fa "const char *pattern"
60.Fa "const char *string"
61.Fa "int flags"
62.Fc
63.Sh DESCRIPTION
64The
65.Fn fnmatch
66function matches patterns as described on the
67.Xr fnmatch 7
68manual page
69.Po with the exceptions noted in the
70.Sx STANDARDS
71.Pc .
72It checks the
73.Fa string
74argument to see if it matches the
75.Fa pattern
76argument.
77.Pp
78The
79.Fa flags
80argument modifies the interpretation of
81.Fa pattern
82and
83.Fa string .
84It is the bitwise inclusive OR of zero or more of the following flags defined in
85the header
86.In fnmatch.h .
87.Bl -tag -width "FNM_LEADING_DIR"
88.It Dv FNM_PATHNAME
89If set, a slash
90.Pq Qq /
91character in
92.Fa string
93will be explicitly matched by a slash in
94.Fa pattern ;
95it will not be matched by either the asterisk
96.Pq Qq *
97or question-mark
98.Pq Qq \&?
99special characters, nor by a bracket
100.Pq Qq []
101expression.
102.sp
103If not set, the slash character is treated as an ordinary character.
104.It Dv FNM_IGNORECASE
105If set, the
106.Fa string
107will be transliterated to lower case before doing the actual match.
108This transliteration is done using
109.Xr towlower_l 3C ,
110using the locale of the current thread.
111If no locale is set, then the global locale is used instead.
112.Pp
113If not set, the match will use
114.Fa string
115with no changes, making the match case-sensitive.
116.Pp
117For compatibility with
118.Fx
119implementation of
120.Fn fnmatch ,
121header
122.In fnmatch.h
123provides the
124.Dv FNM_FOLDCASE
125flag having the same meaning.
126.It Dv FNM_NOESCAPE
127If not set, a backslash character
128.Pq Qq \e
129in
130.Fa pattern
131followed by any other character will match that second character in
132.Fa string .
133In particular,
134.Qq \e\e
135will match a backslash in
136.Fa string .
137.Pp
138If set, a backslash character will be treated as an ordinary character.
139.It Dv FNM_PERIOD
140If set, a leading period in
141.Fa string
142will match a period in
143.Fa pattern ;
144where the location of
145.Qq leading
146is indicated by the value of
147.Dv FNM_PATHNAME :
148.Bl -bullet
149.It
150If
151.Dv FNM_PATHNAME
152is set, a period is
153.Qq leading
154if it is the first character in
155.Fa string
156or if it immediately follows a slash.
157.It
158If
159.Dv FNM_PATHNAME
160is not set, a period is
161.Qq leading
162only if it is the first character of
163.Fa string .
164.El
165.Pp
166If not set, no special restrictions are placed on matching a period.
167.It Dv FNM_LEADING_DIR
168Match if
169.Fa pattern
170matches initial segment of
171.Fa string
172which is followed by a slash.
173.El
174.Sh RETURN VALUES
175If
176.Fa string
177matches the pattern specified by
178.Fa pattern ,
179then
180.Fn fnmatch
181returns 0.
182If there is no match,
183.Fn fnmatch
184returns
185.Dv FNM_NOMATCH ,
186which is defined in the header
187.In fnmatch.h .
188If an error occurs,
189.Fn fnmatch
190returns another non-zero value.
191.Sh USAGE
192The
193.Fn fnmatch
194function has two major uses.
195It could be used by an application or utility that needs to read a directory and
196apply a pattern against each entry.
197The
198.Xr find 1
199utility is an example of this.
200It can also be used by the
201.Xr pax 1
202utility to process its
203.Fa pattern
204operands, or by applications that need to match strings in a similar manner.
205.Pp
206The name
207.Fn fnmatch
208is intended to imply
209.Sy filename
210match, rather than
211.Sy pathname
212match.
213The default action of this function is to match filenames, rather than path
214names, since it gives no special significance to the slash character.
215With the
216.Dv FNM_PATHNAME
217flag,
218.Fn fnmatch
219does match path names, but without tilde expansion, parameter expansion, or
220special treatment for period at the beginning of a filename.
221.Sh CODE SET INDEPENDENCE
222.Sy Enabled
223.Sh INTERFACE STABILITY
224.Sy Standard
225.Sh MT-LEVEL
226.Sy MT-Safe with exceptions
227.Pp
228The
229.Fn fnmatch
230function can be used safely in multithreaded applications, as long as
231.Xr setlocale 3C
232is not being called to change the locale.
233.Sh SEE ALSO
234.Xr find 1 ,
235.Xr pax 1 ,
236.Xr glob 3C ,
237.Xr setlocale 3C ,
238.Xr wordexp 3C ,
239.Xr attributes 7 ,
240.Xr fnmatch 7 ,
241.Xr standards 7
242.Sh STANDARDS
243The current implementation of the
244.Fn fnmatch
245function
246.Em does not
247conform to
248.St -p1003.2 .
249Collating symbol expressions, equivalence class expressions and
250character class expressions are not supported.
251.Sh BUGS
252The pattern
253.Qq *
254matches the empty string, even if
255.Dv FNM_PATHNAME
256is specified.
257