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1.\" Copyright (c) 1989, 1991 The Regents of the University of California.
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4.\" This code is derived from software contributed to Berkeley by
5.\" Guido van Rossum.
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78ed81a3 34.\" @(#)glob.3 5.7 (Berkeley) 12/2/92
15637ed4 35.\"
78ed81a3 36.Dd December 2, 1992
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37.Dt GLOB 3
38.Os
39.Sh NAME
40.Nm glob ,
41.Nm globfree
42.Nd generate pathnames matching a pattern
43.Sh SYNOPSIS
44.Fd #include <glob.h>
45.Ft int
46.Fn glob "const char *pattern" "int flags" "const int (*errfunc)(char *, int)" "glob_t *pglob"
47.Ft void
48.Fn globfree "glob_t *pglob"
49.Sh DESCRIPTION
50The
51.Fn glob
52function
53is a pathname generator that implements the rules for file name pattern
54matching used by the shell.
55.Pp
56The include file
57.Pa glob.h
58defines the structure type
59.Fa glob_t ,
60which contains at least the following fields:
61.Bd -literal
62typedef struct {
63 int gl_pathc; /* count of total paths so far */
64 int gl_matchc; /* count of paths matching pattern */
65 int gl_offs; /* reserved at beginning of gl_pathv */
66 int gl_flags; /* returned flags */
67 char **gl_pathv; /* list of paths matching pattern */
68} glob_t;
69.Ed
70.Pp
71The argument
72.Fa pattern
73is a pointer to a pathname pattern to be expanded.
74The
75.Fn glob
76argument
77matches all accessible pathnames against the pattern and creates
78a list of the pathnames that match.
79In order to have access to a pathname,
80.Fn glob
81requires search permission on every component of a path except the last
82and read permission on each directory of any filename component of
83.Fa pattern
84that contains any of the special characters
85.Ql * ,
86.Ql ?
87or
88.Ql [ .
89.Pp
90The
91.Fn glob
92argument
93stores the number of matched pathnames into the
94.Fa gl_pathc
95field, and a pointer to a list of pointers to pathnames into the
96.Fa gl_pathv
97field.
98The first pointer after the last pathname is
99.Dv NULL .
100If the pattern does not match any pathnames, the returned number of
101matched paths is set to zero.
102.Pp
103It is the caller's responsibility to create the structure pointed to by
104.Fa pglob .
105The
106.Fn glob
107function allocates other space as needed, including the memory pointed
108to by
109.Fa gl_pathv .
110.Pp
111The argument
112.Fa flags
113is used to modify the behavior of
114.Fn glob .
115The value of
116.Fa flags
117is the bitwise inclusive
118.Tn OR
119of any of the following
120values defined in
121.Pa glob.h :
122.Bl -tag -width GLOB_NOCHECK
123.It Dv GLOB_APPEND
124Append pathnames generated to the ones from a previous call (or calls)
125to
126.Fn glob .
127The value of
128.Fa gl_pathc
129will be the total matches found by this call and the previous call(s).
130The pathnames are appended to, not merged with the pathnames returned by
131the previous call(s).
132Between calls, the caller must not change the setting of the
133.Dv GLOB_DOOFFS
134flag, nor change the value of
135.Fa gl_offs
136when
137.Dv GLOB_DOOFFS
138is set, nor (obviously) call
139.Fn globfree
140for
141.Fa pglob .
142.It Dv GLOB_DOOFFS
143Make use of the
144.Fa gl_offs
145field.
146If this flag is set,
147.Fa gl_offs
148is used to specify how many
149.Dv NULL
150pointers to prepend to the beginning
151of the
152.Fa gl_pathv
153field.
154In other words,
155.Fa gl_pathv
156will point to
157.Fa gl_offs
158.Dv NULL
159pointers,
160followed by
161.Fa gl_pathc
162pathname pointers, followed by a
163.Dv NULL
164pointer.
165.It Dv GLOB_ERR
166Causes
167.Fn glob
168to return when it encounters a directory that it cannot open or read.
169Ordinarily,
170.Fn glob
171continues to find matches.
172.It Dv GLOB_MARK
173Each pathname that is a directory that matches
174.Fa pattern
175has a slash
176appended.
177.It Dv GLOB_NOCHECK
178If
179.Fa pattern
180does not match any pathname, then
181.Fn glob
182returns a list
183consisting of only
184.Fa pattern ,
185with the number of total pathnames is set to 1, and the number of matched
186pathnames set to 0.
187If
188.Dv GLOB_QUOTE
189is set, its effect is present in the pattern returned.
190.It Dv GLOB_NOMAGIC
191Is the same as
192.Dv GLOB_NOCHECK
193but it only appends the
194.Fa pattern
195if it does not contain any of the special characters ``*'', ``?'' or ``[''.
196.Dv GLOB_NOMAGIC
197is provided to simplify implementing the historic
198.Xr csh 1
199globbing behavior and should probably not be used anywhere else.
200.It Dv GLOB_NOSORT
201By default, the pathnames are sorted in ascending
202.Tn ASCII
203order;
204this flag prevents that sorting (speeding up
205.Fn glob ) .
206.It Dv GLOB_QUOTE
207Use the backslash
208.Pq Ql \e
209character for quoting: every occurrence of
210a backslash followed by a character in the pattern is replaced by that
211character, avoiding any special interpretation of the character.
78ed81a3 212.It Dv GLOB_ALTDIRFUNC
213The following additional fields in the pglob structure have been
214initialized with alternate functions for glob to use to open, read,
215and close directories and to get stat information on names found
216in those directories.
217.Bd -literal
218 void *(*gl_opendir)();
219 struct dirent *(*gl_readdir)();
220 void (*gl_closedir)();
221 int (*gl_lstat)();
222 int (*gl_stat)();
223.Ed
224.Pp
225This non-standard extension is provided to allow programs such
226as restore to provide globbing from directories stored on tape.
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227.El
228.Pp
229If, during the search, a directory is encountered that cannot be opened
230or read and
231.Fa errfunc
232is
233.Pf non- Dv NULL ,
234.Fn glob
235calls
236.Fa (*errfunc)(path,errno) .
237This may be unintuitive: a pattern like
238.Ql */Makefile
239will try to
240.Xr stat 2
241.Ql foo/Makefile
242even if
243.Ql foo
244is not a directory, resulting in a
245call to
246.Fa errfunc .
247The error routine can suppress this action by testing for
248.Dv ENOENT
249and
250.Dv ENOTDIR ;
251however, the
252.Dv GLOB_ERR
253flag will still cause an immediate
254return when this happens.
255.Pp
256If
257.Fa errfunc
258returns non-zero,
259.Fn glob
260stops the scan and returns
261.Dv GLOB_ABEND
262after setting
263.Fa gl_pathc
264and
265.Fa gl_pathv
266to reflect any paths already matched.
267This also happens if an error is encountered and
268.Dv GLOB_ERR
269is set in
270.Fa flags ,
271regardless of the return value of
272.Fa errfunc ,
273if called.
274If
275.Dv GLOB_ERR
276is not set and either
277.Fa errfunc
278is
279.Dv NULL
280or
281.Fa errfunc
282returns zero, the error is ignored.
283.Pp
284The
285.Fn globfree
286function frees any space associated with
287.Fa pglob
288from a previous call(s) to
289.Fn glob .
290.Sh RETURN VALUES
291On successful completion,
292.Fn glob
293returns zero.
294In addition the fields of
295.Fa pglob
296contain the values described below:
297.Bl -tag -width GLOB_NOCHECK
298.It Fa gl_pathc
299contains the total number of matched pathnames so far.
300This includes other matches from previous invocations of
301.Fn glob
302if
303.Dv GLOB_APPEND
304was specified.
305.It Fa gl_matchc
306contains the number of matched pathnames in the current invocation of
307.Fn glob .
308.It Fa gl_flags
309contains a copy of the
310.Fa flags
311parameter with the bit
312.Dv GLOB_MAGCHAR
313set if
314.Fa pattern
315contained any of the special characters ``*'', ``?'' or ``['', cleared
316if not.
317.It Fa gl_pathv
318contains a pointer to a
319.Dv NULL Ns -terminated
320list of matched pathnames.
321However, if
322.Fa gl_pathc
323is zero, the contents of
324.Fa gl_pathv
325are undefined.
326.El
327.Pp
328If
329.Fn glob
330terminates due to an error, it sets errno and returns one of the
331following non-zero constants, which are defined in the include
332file
333.Aq Pa glob.h :
334.Bl -tag -width GLOB_NOCHECK
335.It Dv GLOB_NOSPACE
336An attempt to allocate memory failed.
337.It Dv GLOB_ABEND
338The scan was stopped because an error was encountered and either
339.Dv GLOB_ERR
340was set or
341.Fa (*errfunc)()
342returned non-zero.
343.El
344.Pp
345The arguments
346.Fa pglob\->gl_pathc
347and
348.Fa pglob\->gl_pathv
349are still set as specified above.
350.Sh SEE ALSO
351.Xr sh 1 ,
352.Xr fnmatch 3 ,
353.Xr wordexp 3 ,
354.Xr regexp 3
355.Sh STANDARDS
356The
357.Fn glob
358function is expected to be
359.St -p1003.2
360compatible with the exception
78ed81a3 361that the flags
362.Dv GLOB_ALTDIRFUNC
363and
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364.Dv GLOB_QUOTE
365and the fields
366.Fa gl_matchc
367and
368.Fa gl_flags
369should not be used by applications striving for strict
370.Tn POSIX
371conformance.
372.Sh EXAMPLE
373A rough equivalent of
374.Ql "ls -l *.c *.h"
375can be obtained with the
376following code:
377.Bd -literal -offset indent
378GLOB_t g;
379
380g.gl_offs = 2;
381glob("*.c", GLOB_DOOFFS, NULL, &g);
382glob("*.h", GLOB_DOOFFS | GLOB_APPEND, NULL, &g);
383g.gl_pathv[0] = "ls";
384g.gl_pathv[1] = "-l";
385execvp("ls", g.gl_pathv);
386.Ed
387.Sh HISTORY
388The
389.Fn glob
390and
391.Fn globfree
392functions are
393.Ud .
394.Sh BUGS
395Patterns longer than
396.Dv MAXPATHLEN
397may cause unchecked errors.
398.Pp
399The
400.Fn glob
401argument
402may fail and set errno for any of the errors specified for the
403library routines
404.Xr stat 2 ,
405.Xr closedir 3 ,
406.Xr opendir 3 ,
407.Xr readdir 3 ,
408.Xr malloc 3 ,
409and
410.Xr free 3 .