FNMATCH(3) BSD Library Functions Manual FNMATCH(3)NAMEfnmatch — test whether a filename or pathname matches a shell-style pat‐
tern
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 according to the rules used by
the shell. It checks the string specified by the string argument to see
if it matches the pattern specified by the pattern argument.
The flags argument modifies the interpretation of pattern and string.
The value of flags is the bitwise inclusive OR of any of the following
constants, which are defined in the include file <fnmatch.h>.
FNM_NOESCAPE Normally, every occurrence of a backslash (‘\’) followed by
a character in pattern is replaced by that character. This
is done to negate any special meaning for the character.
If the FNM_NOESCAPE flag is set, a backslash character is
treated as an ordinary character.
FNM_PATHNAME Slash characters in string must be explicitly matched by
slashes in pattern. If this flag is not set, then slashes
are treated as regular characters.
FNM_PERIOD Leading periods in string must be explicitly matched by
periods in pattern. If this flag is not set, then leading
periods are treated as regular characters. The definition
of “leading” is related to the specification of
FNM_PATHNAME. A period is always “leading” if it is the
first character in string. Additionally, if FNM_PATHNAME
is set, a period is leading if it immediately follows a
slash.
FNM_LEADING_DIR
Ignore “/*” rest after successful pattern matching.
FNM_CASEFOLD Ignore case distinctions in both the pattern and the
string.
RETURN VALUES
The fnmatch() function returns zero if string matches the pattern speci‐
fied by pattern. It returns the value FNM_NOMATCH if no match is found.
Otherwise, another non-zero value is returned on error.
LEGACY RETURN VALUES
The fnmatch() function returns zero if string matches the pattern speci‐
fied by pattern; otherwise, it returns the value FNM_NOMATCH.
SEE ALSOsh(1), glob(3), regex(3)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.
HISTORY
The fnmatch() function first appeared in 4.4BSD.
BUGS
The pattern ‘*’ matches the empty string, even if FNM_PATHNAME is speci‐
fied.
BSD July 18, 2004 BSD
