glob(3) - Linux manual page (original) (raw)
glob(3) Library Functions Manual glob(3)
NAME top
glob, globfree - find pathnames matching a pattern, free memory
from glob()LIBRARY top
Standard C library (_libc_, _-lc_)SYNOPSIS top
**#include <glob.h>**
**int glob(const char *restrict** _pattern_**, int** _flags_**,**
**int (***_errfunc_**)(const char ***_epath_**, int** _eerrno_**),**
**glob_t *restrict** _pglob_**);**
**void globfree(glob_t ***_pglob_**);**DESCRIPTION top
The **glob**() function searches for all the pathnames matching
_pattern_ according to the rules used by the shell (see [glob(7)](../man7/glob.7.html)).
No tilde expansion or parameter substitution is done; if you want
these, use [wordexp(3)](../man3/wordexp.3.html).
The **globfree**() function frees the dynamically allocated storage
from an earlier call to **glob**().
The results of a **glob**() call are stored in the structure pointed
to by _pglob_. This structure is of type _globt_ (declared in
_<glob.h>_) and includes the following elements defined by POSIX.2
(more may be present as an extension):
typedef struct {
size_t gl_pathc; /* Count of paths matched so far */
char **gl_pathv; /* List of matched pathnames. */
size_t gl_offs; /* Slots to reserve in _glpathv_. */
} glob_t;
Results are stored in dynamically allocated storage.
The argument _flags_ is made up of the bitwise OR of zero or more
the following symbolic constants, which modify the behavior of
**glob**():
**GLOB_ERR**
Return upon a read error (because a directory does not
have read permission, for example). By default, **glob**()
attempts carry on despite errors, reading all of the
directories that it can.
**GLOB_MARK**
Append a slash to each path which corresponds to a
directory.
**GLOB_NOSORT**
Don't sort the returned pathnames. The only reason to do
this is to save processing time. By default, the returned
pathnames are sorted.
**GLOB_DOOFFS**
Reserve _pglob->gloffs_ slots at the beginning of the list
of strings in _pglob->pathv_. The reserved slots contain
null pointers.
**GLOB_NOCHECK**
If no pattern matches, return the original pattern. By
default, **glob**() returns **GLOB_NOMATCH** if there are no
matches.
**GLOB_APPEND**
Append the results of this call to the vector of results
returned by a previous call to **glob**(). Do not set this
flag on the first invocation of **glob**().
**GLOB_NOESCAPE**
Don't allow backslash ('\') to be used as an escape
character. Normally, a backslash can be used to quote the
following character, providing a mechanism to turn off the
special meaning metacharacters.
_flags_ may also include any of the following, which are GNU
extensions and not defined by POSIX.2:
**GLOB_PERIOD**
Allow a leading period to be matched by metacharacters.
By default, metacharacters can't match a leading period.
**GLOB_ALTDIRFUNC**
Use alternative functions _pglob->glclosedir_,
_pglob->glreaddir_, _pglob->glopendir_, _pglob->gllstat_, and
_pglob->glstat_ for filesystem access instead of the normal
library functions.
**GLOB_BRACE**
Expand **csh**(1) style brace expressions of the form **{a,b}**.
Brace expressions can be nested. Thus, for example,
specifying the pattern "{foo/{,cat,dog},bar}" would return
the same results as four separate **glob**() calls using the
strings: "foo/", "foo/cat", "foo/dog", and "bar".
**GLOB_NOMAGIC**
If the pattern contains no metacharacters, then it should
be returned as the sole matching word, even if there is no
file with that name.
**GLOB_TILDE**
Carry out tilde expansion. If a tilde ('~') is the only
character in the pattern, or an initial tilde is followed
immediately by a slash ('/'), then the home directory of
the caller is substituted for the tilde. If an initial
tilde is followed by a username (e.g., "~andrea/bin"),
then the tilde and username are substituted by the home
directory of that user. If the username is invalid, or
the home directory cannot be determined, then no
substitution is performed.
**GLOB_TILDE_CHECK**
This provides behavior similar to that of **GLOB_TILDE**. The
difference is that if the username is invalid, or the home
directory cannot be determined, then instead of using the
pattern itself as the name, **glob**() returns **GLOB_NOMATCH** to
indicate an error.
**GLOB_ONLYDIR**
This is a _hint_ to **glob**() that the caller is interested
only in directories that match the pattern. If the
implementation can easily determine file-type information,
then nondirectory files are not returned to the caller.
However, the caller must still check that returned files
are directories. (The purpose of this flag is merely to
optimize performance when the caller is interested only in
directories.)
If _errfunc_ is not NULL, it will be called in case of an error
with the arguments _epath_, a pointer to the path which failed, and
_eerrno_, the value of _[errno](../man3/errno.3.html)_ as returned from one of the calls to
[opendir(3)](../man3/opendir.3.html), [readdir(3)](../man3/readdir.3.html), or [stat(2)](../man2/stat.2.html). If _errfunc_ returns nonzero,
or if **GLOB_ERR** is set, **glob**() will terminate after the call to
_errfunc_.
Upon successful return, _pglob->glpathc_ contains the number of
matched pathnames and _pglob->glpathv_ contains a pointer to the
list of pointers to matched pathnames. The list of pointers is
terminated by a null pointer.
It is possible to call **glob**() several times. In that case, the
**GLOB_APPEND** flag has to be set in _flags_ on the second and later
invocations.
As a GNU extension, _pglob->glflags_ is set to the flags
specified, **or**ed with **GLOB_MAGCHAR** if any metacharacters were
found.RETURN VALUE top
On successful completion, **glob**() returns zero. Other possible
returns are:
**GLOB_NOSPACE**
for running out of memory,
**GLOB_ABORTED**
for a read error, and
**GLOB_NOMATCH**
for no found matches.ATTRIBUTES top
For an explanation of the terms used in this section, see
[attributes(7)](../man7/attributes.7.html).
┌────────────┬───────────────┬──────────────────────────────────┐
│ **Interface** │ **Attribute** │ **Value** │
├────────────┼───────────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│ **glob**() │ Thread safety │ MT-Unsafe race:utent env │
│ │ │ sig:ALRM timer locale │
├────────────┼───────────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│ **globfree**() │ Thread safety │ MT-Safe │
└────────────┴───────────────┴──────────────────────────────────┘
In the above table, _utent_ in _race:utent_ signifies that if any of
the functions [setutent(3)](../man3/setutent.3.html), [getutent(3)](../man3/getutent.3.html), or [endutent(3)](../man3/endutent.3.html) are used
in parallel in different threads of a program, then data races
could occur. **glob**() calls those functions, so we use race:utent
to remind users.STANDARDS top
POSIX.1-2008.HISTORY top
POSIX.1-2001, POSIX.2.NOTES top
The structure elements _glpathc_ and _gloffs_ are declared as
_sizet_ in glibc 2.1, as they should be according to POSIX.2, but
are declared as _int_ in glibc 2.0.BUGS top
The **glob**() function may fail due to failure of underlying
function calls, such as [malloc(3)](../man3/malloc.3.html) or [opendir(3)](../man3/opendir.3.html). These will
store their error code in _[errno](../man3/errno.3.html)_.EXAMPLES top
One example of use is the following code, which simulates typing
ls -l *.c ../*.c
in the shell:
glob_t globbuf;
globbuf.gl_offs = 2;
glob("*.c", GLOB_DOOFFS, NULL, &globbuf);
glob("../*.c", GLOB_DOOFFS | GLOB_APPEND, NULL, &globbuf);
globbuf.gl_pathv[0] = "ls";
globbuf.gl_pathv[1] = "-l";
execvp("ls", &globbuf.gl_pathv[0]);SEE ALSO top
[ls(1)](../man1/ls.1.html), **sh**(1), [stat(2)](../man2/stat.2.html), [exec(3)](../man3/exec.3.html), [fnmatch(3)](../man3/fnmatch.3.html), [malloc(3)](../man3/malloc.3.html),
[opendir(3)](../man3/opendir.3.html), [readdir(3)](../man3/readdir.3.html), [wordexp(3)](../man3/wordexp.3.html), [glob(7)](../man7/glob.7.html)COLOPHON top
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