MirBSD manpage: File::DosGlob(3p)

File::DosGlob(3p)Perl Programmers Reference GuidFile::DosGlob(3p)

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 = glob  "..\\pe?l/*.p?";
         print <..\\pe?l/*.p?>;

         # 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, "<..\\l*b\\file/*glob.p?"> will work as
     expected (in that it will find something like
     '..\lib\File/DosGlob.pm' alright). Note that all path com-
     ponents are case-insensitive, and that backslashes and for-
     ward 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 token-
     ized using "Text::ParseWords::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 separator 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

perl v5.8.8                2005-02-05                           1

File::DosGlob(3p)Perl Programmers Reference GuidFile::DosGlob(3p)

         specifying a file or directory name in the current work-
         ing 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 complicated,
         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

perl v5.8.8                2005-02-05                           2

File::DosGlob(3p)Perl Programmers Reference GuidFile::DosGlob(3p)

     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 importa-
         tion being 10 times faster than using perlglob.exe, and
         using perlglob.bat is only twice as slow as perlglob.exe
         (GSAR 28-MAY-97)

     +   Several cleanups prompted by lack of compatible
         perlglob.exe under Borland (GSAR 27-MAY-97)

     +   Initial version (GSAR 20-FEB-97)

SEE ALSO

     perl

     perlglob.bat

     Text::ParseWords

perl v5.8.8                2005-02-05                           3