FNMATCH(3P)                                         POSIX Programmer's Manual                                        FNMATCH(3P)



PROLOG
       This  manual  page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual.  The Linux implementation of this interface may differ (con-
       sult the corresponding Linux manual page for details of Linux behavior), or the  interface  may  not  be  implemented  on
       Linux.

NAME
       fnmatch - match a filename or a pathname

SYNOPSIS
       #include <fnmatch.h>

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


DESCRIPTION
       The  fnmatch() function shall match patterns as described in the Shell and Utilities volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, Sec-
       tion 2.13.1, Patterns Matching a Single Character, and Section 2.13.2, Patterns Matching Multiple Characters.  It  checks
       the string specified by the string argument to see if it matches the pattern specified by the pattern argument.

       The  flags argument shall modify the interpretation of pattern and string. It is the bitwise-inclusive OR of zero or more
       of the flags defined in <fnmatch.h>. If the FNM_PATHNAME flag is set in flags, then a slash character ( '/' )  in  string
       shall  be  explicitly matched by a slash in pattern; it shall not be matched by either the asterisk or question-mark spe-
       cial characters, nor by a bracket expression. If the FNM_PATHNAME flag is not set, the slash character shall  be  treated
       as an ordinary character.

       If FNM_NOESCAPE is not set in flags, a backslash character ( '\' ) in pattern followed by any other character shall match
       that second character in string. In particular, "\\" shall match a backslash in string. If FNM_NOESCAPE is set,  a  back-
       slash character shall be treated as an ordinary character.

       If  FNM_PERIOD is set in flags, then a leading period ( '.'  ) in string shall match a period in pattern; 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:

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

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

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

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

ERRORS
       No errors are defined.

       The following sections are informative.

EXAMPLES
       None.

APPLICATION 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 utility is an example of this. It can also be used by the pax 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 pathnames, since it gives no special significance to the  slash  character.  With  the
       FNM_PATHNAME flag, fnmatch() does match pathnames, but without tilde expansion, parameter expansion, or special treatment
       for a period at the beginning of a filename.

RATIONALE
       This function replaced the REG_FILENAME flag of regcomp() in early proposals of this volume of  IEEE Std 1003.1-2001.  It
       provides  virtually the same functionality as the regcomp() and regexec() functions using the REG_FILENAME and REG_FSLASH
       flags (the REG_FSLASH flag was proposed for regcomp(), and would have had the opposite  effect  from  FNM_PATHNAME),  but
       with a simpler function and less system overhead.

FUTURE DIRECTIONS
       None.

SEE ALSO
       glob(),  wordexp(),  the  Base Definitions volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, <fnmatch.h>, the Shell and Utilities volume of
       IEEE Std 1003.1-2001

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, Copy-
       right (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.open-
       group.org/unix/online.html .



IEEE/The Open Group                                           2003                                                   FNMATCH(3P)