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

NAME

       fnmatch — match a filename string 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 POSIX.1‐2008, Section 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> special 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 <backslash> 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
       POSIX.1‐2008,  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 filename strings, 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 POSIX.1‐2008. 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(), Section 2.6, Word Expansions

       The Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1‐2008, <fnmatch.h>

COPYRIGHT

       Portions  of  this  text  are  reprinted  and  reproduced in electronic form from IEEE Std
       1003.1, 2013 Edition, Standard for Information Technology  --  Portable  Operating  System
       Interface  (POSIX),  The Open Group Base Specifications Issue 7, Copyright (C) 2013 by the
       Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc  and  The  Open  Group.   (This  is
       POSIX.1-2008  with  the  2013  Technical  Corrigendum  1  applied.)  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.unix.org/online.html .

       Any typographical or formatting errors that appear in this page are most  likely  to  have
       been  introduced  during  the conversion of the source files to man page format. To report
       such errors, see https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/reporting_bugs.html .