file::dosglob(3)

NAME

File::DosGlob - DOS like globbing and then some

SYNOPSIS

require 5.004;
# override CORE::glob in current package
use File::DosGlob 'glob';
# override CORE::glob in ALL packages  (use  with  extreme caution!)
use File::DosGlob 'GLOBAL_glob';
@perlfiles
=
print
# from the command line (overrides only in main::)
> perl -MFile::DosGlob=glob -e "print <../pe*/*p?>"

DESCRIPTION

A module that implements DOS-like globbing with a few
enhancements. It is largely compatible with perlglob.exe
(the M$ setargv.obj version) in all but one respect--it
understands wildcards in directory components.

For example, "<..ble/*glob.p?"> will work as
expected (in that it will find something like
'..le/DosGlob.pm' alright). Note that all path
components are case-insensitive, and that backslashes and
forward slashes are both accepted, and preserved. You may
have to double the backslashes if you are putting them in
literally, due to double-quotish parsing of the pattern by
perl.

Spaces in the argument delimit distinct patterns, so
"glob('*.exe *.dll')" globs all filenames that end in
".exe" or ".dll". If you want to put in literal spaces in
the glob pattern, you can escape them with either double
quotes, or backslashes. e.g. "glob('c:/"Program
Files"/*/*.dll')", or "glob('c:/Program Files/*/*.dll')".
The argument is tokenized using "Text::Parse
Words::parse_line()", so see Text::ParseWords for details
of the quoting rules used.

Extending it to csh patterns is left as an exercise to the
reader.

NOTES

� Mac OS (Classic) users should note a few differences.: The specification of pathnames in glob patterns
adheres to the usual Mac OS conventions: The path sep
arator is a colon ':', not a slash '/' or backslash
'�. A full path always begins with a volume name. A
relative pathname on Mac OS must always begin with a
':', except when specifying a file or directory name
in the current working directory, where the leading
colon is optional. If specifying a volume name only, a
trailing ':' is required. Due to these rules, a glob
like <*:> will find all mounted volumes, while a glob
like <*> or <:*> will find all files and directories
in the current directory.; Note that updirs in the glob pattern are resolved
before the matching begins, i.e. a pattern like
"*HD:t?p::a*" will be matched as "*HD:a*". Note also,
that a single trailing ':' in the pattern is ignored
(unless it's a volume name pattern like "*HD:"), i.e.
a glob like <:*:> will find both directories and files
(and not, as one might expect, only directories).; The metachars '*', '?' and the escape char '� are
valid characters in volume, directory and file names
on Mac OS. Hence, if you want to match a '*', '?' or
'� literally, you have to escape these characters.
Due to perl's quoting rules, things may get a bit com
plicated, when you want to match a string like '
literally, or when you want to match '� literally,
but treat the immediately following character '*' as
metachar. So, here's a rule of thumb (applies to both
single- and double-quoted strings): escape each '*' or
'?' or '� with a backslash, if you want to treat them
literally, and then double each backslash and your are
done. E.g.; - Match ' literally

escape both '� and '*' : ' double the

backslashes : '; (Internally, the glob routine sees a ' which
means that both '� and '*' are escaped.); - Match '� literally, treat '*' as metachar

escape '� but not '*' : '
double the backslashes : '; (Internally, the glob routine sees a ', which
means that '� is escaped and '*' is not.); Note that you also have to quote literal spaces in the
glob pattern, as described above.

EXPORTS (by request only)

glob()

BUGS

Should probably be built into the core, and needs to stop
pandering to DOS habits. Needs a dose of optimizium too.

AUTHOR

Gurusamy Sarathy <gsar@activestate.com>

HISTORY

� Support for globally overriding glob() (GSAR 3-JUN-98)

� Scalar context, independent iterator context fixes: (GSAR 15-SEP-97)
� A few dir-vs-file optimizations result in glob impor: tation being 10 times faster than using perlglob.exe,
and using perlglob.bat is only twice as slow as perl
glob.exe (GSAR 28-MAY-97)
� Several cleanups prompted by lack of compatible perl: glob.exe under Borland (GSAR 27-MAY-97)
� Initial version (GSAR 20-FEB-97)

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