FNMATCH(3C) Standard C Library Functions FNMATCH(3C)

NAME

fnmatch - match filename or path name

LIBRARY

Standard C Library (libc, -lc)

SYNOPSIS

#include <fnmatch.h>

int
fnmatch(const char *pattern, const char *string, int flags);

DESCRIPTION

The fnmatch() function matches patterns as described on the fnmatch(7)
manual page (with the exceptions noted in the STANDARDS). It checks the
string argument to see if it matches the pattern argument.

The flags argument modifies the interpretation of pattern and string. It
is the bitwise inclusive OR of zero or more of the following flags defined
in the header <fnmatch.h>.

FNM_PATHNAME If set, a slash ("/") character in string will be
explicitly matched by a slash in pattern; it will not be
matched by either the asterisk ("*") or question-mark
("?") special characters, nor by a bracket ("[]")
expression.

If not set, the slash character is treated as an ordinary
character.

FNM_IGNORECASE If set, the string will be transliterated to lower case
before doing the actual match. This transliteration is
done using towlower_l(3C), using the locale of the current
thread. If no locale is set, then the global locale is
used instead.

If not set, the match will use string with no changes,
making the match case-sensitive.

For compatibility with FreeBSD implementation of
fnmatch(), header <fnmatch.h> provides the FNM_FOLDCASE
flag having the same meaning.

FNM_NOESCAPE If not set, a backslash character ("\") in pattern
followed by any other character will match that second
character in string. In particular, "\\" will match a
backslash in string.

If set, a backslash character will be treated as an
ordinary character.

FNM_PERIOD If set, a leading period in string will match a period in
pattern; where the location of "leading" is indicated by
the value of FNM_PATHNAME:

+o If FNM_PATHNAME is set, a period is "leading" if it is
the first character in string or if it immediately
follows a slash.

+o If FNM_PATHNAME is not set, a period is "leading" only
if it is the first character of string.

If not set, no special restrictions are placed on matching
a period.

FNM_LEADING_DIR Match if pattern matches initial segment of string which
is followed by a slash.

RETURN VALUES

If string matches the pattern specified by pattern, then fnmatch() returns
0. If there is no match, fnmatch() returns FNM_NOMATCH, which is defined
in the header <fnmatch.h>. If an error occurs, fnmatch() returns another
non-zero value.

USAGE

The fnmatch() 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 find(1) utility is an example of this. It can
also be used by the pax(1) utility to process its pattern operands, or by
applications that need to match strings in a similar manner.

The name fnmatch() is intended to imply filename match, rather than
pathname match. The default action of this function is to match filenames,
rather than path names, since it gives no special significance to the slash
character. With the FNM_PATHNAME flag, fnmatch() does match path names,
but without tilde expansion, parameter expansion, or special treatment for
period at the beginning of a filename.

CODE SET INDEPENDENCE

Enabled

INTERFACE STABILITY

Standard

MT-LEVEL
MT-Safe with exceptions

The fnmatch() function can be used safely in multithreaded applications, as
long as setlocale(3C) is not being called to change the locale.

SEE ALSO

find(1), pax(1), glob(3C), setlocale(3C), wordexp(3C), attributes(7),
fnmatch(7), standards(7)

STANDARDS

The current implementation of the fnmatch() function does not conform to
IEEE Std 1003.2 ("POSIX.2"). Collating symbol expressions, equivalence
class expressions and character class expressions are not supported.

BUGS

The pattern "*" matches the empty string, even if FNM_PATHNAME is
specified.

illumos August 14, 2017 illumos