WILDMAT (3)

NAME
     wildmat - perform shell-style wildcard matching

SYNOPSIS
     int
     wildmat(text, pattern)
         char  *text;
         char  *pattern;

DESCRIPTION
     Wildmat compares the text against the pattern and returns non-zero if the
     pattern  matches the text.  The pattern is interpreted according to rules
     similar to shell filename wildcards, and not as a full regular expression
     such  as  those handled by the grep(1) family of programs or the regex(3)
     or regexp(3) set of routines.

     The pattern is interpreted as follows:

     \x   Turns off the special meaning of x and matches it directly; this  is
          used  mostly  before a question mark or asterisk, and is not special
          inside square brackets.

     ?    Matches any single character.

     *    Matches any sequence of zero or more characters.

     [x...y]
          Matches any single character specified by the set  x...y.   A  minus
          sign  may  be  used  to  indicate  a  range of characters.  That is,
          [0-5abc] is a shorthand for [012345abc].  More than  one  range  may
          appear  inside  a character set; [0-9a-zA-Z._] matches almost all of
          the legal characters for a host name.  The close bracket, ], may  be
          used  if  it  is the first character in the set.  The minus sign, -,
          may be used if it is either the first or last character in the set.

     [^x...y]
          This  matches  any  character  not  in  the  set  x...y,  which   is
          interpreted  as  described  above.   For  example, [^]-] matches any
          character other than a close bracket or minus sign.

HISTORY
     Written by Rich $alz <rsalz@uunet.uu.net> in 1986, and posted  to  Usenet
     several  times  since  then,  most notably in comp.sources.misc in March,
     1991.

     Lars Mathiesen <thorinn@diku.dk> enhanced the multi-asterisk failure mode
     in early 1991.

     Rich and Lars increased the efficiency of star patterns and  reposted  it
     to comp.sources.misc in April, 1991.

     Robert  Elz  <kre@munnari.oz.au>  added  minus  sign  and  close  bracket
     handling in June, 1991.

     This is revision 1.10, dated 1992/04/03.

SEE ALSO
     grep(1), regex(3), regexp(3).