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 short-
              hand 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 exam-
              ple, [^]-] matches any character other than a close
              bracket or minus sign.

HISTORY
       Written  by  Rich  $alz  lt;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 lt;thorinn@diku.dk enhanced the multi-aster-
       isk 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 lt;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).