.\" Please adjust this date whenever revising the manpage.
.TH SHELLEXP 3 "October 17, 2007"
.SH NAME
shellexp \- match string against a cruft filter pattern
.SH SYNOPSIS
.nf
.BI "extern int shellexp(const char *" string ", const char *" pattern );
.fi
.SH DESCRIPTION
The
.BR shellexp ()
function is similar to
.BR fnmatch (3),
but works with cruft patterns instead of standard
.BR glob (7)
patterns.
The function returns a true value if
.I string
matches the cruft pattern
.IR pattern ,
and a false value (0) otherwise. Returns \-1 in case of pattern syntax error.

.PP
Cruft patterns are similar to
.BR glob (7)
patterns, but are not fully compatible. The following special characters are
supported:

.TP
.B ? (a question mark)
matches exactly one character of
.I string
other than a slash.

.TP
.B *
matches zero or more characters of
.I string
other than a slash.

.TP
.B /** or /**/
matches zero or more path components in
.IR string .
Please note that you can only use
.B **
when directly following a slash, and furthermore, only when either directly
preceding a slash or at the very end of
.IR pattern .
A
.B **
followed by anything other than a slash makes
.I pattern
invalid. A
.B **
following anything else than a slash reduces it to having the same effect as
.BR * .

.TP
.BI [ character-class ]
Matches any character between the brackets exactly once. Named character
classes are NOT supported. If the first character of the class is
.B !
or
.BR ^ ,
then the meaning is inverted (matches any character NOT listed between the
brackets).  If you want to specify a literal closing bracket in the class, then
specify it as the first (or second, if you want to negate) character after the
opening bracket.  Also, simple ASCII-order ranges are supported using a dash
character (see examples section).

.PP
Any other character matches itself.

.SH EXAMPLES
.TP
.B /a/b*/*c
matches
.BR /a/b/xyz.c ,
as well as
.BR /a/bcd/.c ,
but not
.BR /a/b/c/d.c .

.TP
.B /a/**/*.c
matches all of the following:
.BR /a/a.c ,
.BR /a/b/a.c ,
.BR /a/b/c/a.c
and
.BR /a/b/c/d/a.c .

.TP
.B /a/[0\-9][^0\-9]*
matches
.BR /a/1abc ,
but not
.BR /a/12bc .

.SH BUGS
Uses constant-length 1000 byte buffers to hold filenames. Also uses recursive
function calls, which are not very efficient. Does not validate the pattern
before matching, so any pattern errors (unbalanced brackets or misplaced
.BR ** )
are only reported when and if the matching algorithm reaches them.

.SH "SEE ALSO"
.BR fnmatch (3),
.BR glob (3),
.BR cruft (8)
and
.BR dash\-search (1).
.SH AUTHOR
This manual page was written by Marcin Owsiany <porridge@debian.org>,
for the Debian GNU/Linux system (but may be used by others).