FNMATCH

Section: Linux Programmer's Manual (3)
Updated: 2000-10-15
Index Return to Main Contents

NAME

fnmatch - match filename or pathname

SYNOPSIS

#include <fnmatch.h>

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

DESCRIPTION

The fnmatch() function checks whether the string argument matches the pattern argument, which is a shell wildcard pattern.

The flags argument modifies the behavior; it is the bitwise OR of zero or more of the following flags:

FNM_NOESCAPE: If this flag is set, treat backslash as an ordinary character, instead of an escape character.
FNM_PATHNAME: If this flag is set, match a slash in string only with a slash in pattern and not by an asterisk (*) or a question mark (?) metacharacter, nor by a bracket expression ([]) containing a slash.
FNM_PERIOD: If this flag is set, a leading period in string has to be matched exactly by a period in pattern. A period is considered to be leading if it is the first character in string, or if both FNM_PATHNAME is set and the period immediately follows a slash.
FNM_FILE_NAME: This is a GNU synonym for FNM_PATHNAME.
FNM_LEADING_DIR: If this flag (a GNU extension) is set, the pattern is considered to be matched if it matches an initial segment of string which is followed by a slash. This flag is mainly for the internal use of glibc and is only implemented in certain cases.
FNM_CASEFOLD: If this flag (a GNU extension) is set, the pattern is matched case-insensitively.

RETURN VALUE

Zero if string matches pattern, FNM_NOMATCH if there is no match or another non-zero value if there is an error.

CONFORMING TO

POSIX.2. The FNM_FILE_NAME, FNM_LEADING_DIR, and FNM_CASEFOLD flags are GNU extensions.

COLOPHON

This page is part of release 3.05 of the Linux man-pages project. A description of the project, and information about reporting bugs, can be found at http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.