glob(3) - f7

1GLOB(3)                    Linux Programmer's Manual                   GLOB(3)
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NAME

6       glob,  globfree  -  find pathnames matching a pattern, free memory from
7       glob()
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SYNOPSIS

10       #include <glob.h>
11
12       int glob(const char *pattern, int flags,
13                int (*errfunc) (const char *epath, int eerrno),
14                glob_t *pglob);
15       void globfree(glob_t *pglob);
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DESCRIPTION

18       The glob() function searches for all  the  pathnames  matching  pattern
19       according  to  the  rules  used  by  the shell (see glob(7)).  No tilde
20       expansion or parameter substitution is done; if  you  want  these,  use
21       wordexp(3).
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23       The globfree() function frees the dynamically allocated storage from an
24       earlier call to glob().
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26       The results of a glob() call are stored in the structure pointed to  by
27       pglob, which is a glob_t which is declared in <glob.h> and includes the
28       following elements defined by POSIX.2 (more may be present as an exten‐
29       sion):
30
31          typedef struct
32          {
33                  size_t gl_pathc;    /* Count of paths matched so far  */
34                  char **gl_pathv;    /* List of matched pathnames.  */
35                  size_t gl_offs;     /* Slots to reserve in `gl_pathv'.  */
36          } glob_t;
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38       Results are stored in dynamically allocated storage.
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40       The  parameter  flags is made up of bitwise OR of zero or more the fol‐
41       lowing symbolic constants, which modify the of behaviour of glob():
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43       GLOB_ERR
44              which means to return upon read error (because a directory  does
45              not have read permission, for example),
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47       GLOB_MARK
48              which  means to append a slash to each path which corresponds to
49              a directory,
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51       GLOB_NOSORT
52              which means don't sort  the  returned  pathnames  (they  are  by
53              default),
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55       GLOB_DOOFFS
56              which  means  that  pglob->gl_offs slots will be reserved at the
57              beginning of the list of strings in pglob->pathv,
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59       GLOB_NOCHECK
60              which means that, if no pattern matches, to return the  original
61              pattern,
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63       GLOB_APPEND
64              which means to append to the results of a previous call.  Do not
65              set this flag on the first invocation of glob().
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67       GLOB_NOESCAPE
68              which means that meta  characters  cannot  be  quoted  by  back‐
69              slashes.
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71       The  flags may also include some of the following, which are GNU exten‐
72       sions and not defined by POSIX.2:
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74       GLOB_PERIOD
75              which means that a leading period can be matched by meta charac‐
76              ters,
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78       GLOB_ALTDIRFUNC
79              which   means  that  alternative  functions  pglob->gl_closedir,
80              pglob->gl_readdir,   pglob->gl_opendir,   pglob->gl_lstat,   and
81              pglob->gl_stat  are  used  for file system access instead of the
82              normal library functions,
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84       GLOB_BRACE
85              which means  that  csh(1)  style  brace  expressions  {a,b}  are
86              expanded,
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88       GLOB_NOMAGIC
89              which  means  that  the  pattern  is  returned if it contains no
90              metacharacters,
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92       GLOB_TILDE
93              which means that tilde expansion is carried out, and
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95       GLOB_ONLYDIR
96              which means that only directories are matched.
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98       If errfunc is not NULL, it will be called in case of an error with  the
99       arguments  epath,  a  pointer to the path which failed, and eerrno, the
100       value of errno as returned from one of the calls  to  opendir(),  read‐
101       dir(),  or stat().  If errfunc returns non-zero, or if GLOB_ERR is set,
102       glob() will terminate after the call to errfunc.
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104       Upon successful return, pglob->gl_pathc contains the number of  matched
105       pathnames  and  pglob->gl_pathv  a pointer to the list of matched path‐
106       names.  The first pointer after the last pathname is NULL.
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108       It is possible to  call  glob()  several  times.   In  that  case,  the
109       GLOB_APPEND flag has to be set in flags on the second and later invoca‐
110       tions.
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112       As a GNU extension, pglob->gl_flags is set to the flags specified, ored
113       with GLOB_MAGCHAR if any metacharacters were found.
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RETURN VALUE

116       On  successful completion, glob() returns zero.  Other possible returns
117       are:
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119       GLOB_NOSPACE
120              for running out of memory,
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122       GLOB_ABORTED
123              for a read error, and
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125       GLOB_NOMATCH
126              for no found matches.
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EXAMPLE

129       One example of use is the following code, which simulates typing
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131       ls -l *.c ../*.c
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133       in the shell:
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135          glob_t globbuf;
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137          globbuf.gl_offs = 2;
138          glob("*.c", GLOB_DOOFFS, NULL, &globbuf);
139          glob("../*.c", GLOB_DOOFFS | GLOB_APPEND, NULL, &globbuf);
140          globbuf.gl_pathv[0] = "ls";
141          globbuf.gl_pathv[1] = "-l";
142          execvp("ls", &globbuf.gl_pathv[0]);
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CONFORMING TO

145       POSIX.2, POSIX.1-2001.
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BUGS

148       The glob() function may fail due  to  failure  of  underlying  function
149       calls,  such  as  malloc()  or opendir().  These will store their error
150       code in errno.
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NOTES

153       The structure elements gl_pathc and gl_offs are declared as  size_t  in
154       glibc 2.1, as they should according to POSIX.2, but are declared as int
155       in libc4, libc5 and glibc 2.0.
156