File::DosGlob - DOS like globbing and then some

- NAME
- SYNOPSIS
- DESCRIPTION
- NOTES
- EXPORTS (by request only)
- BUGS
- AUTHOR
- HISTORY
- SEE ALSO

# 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 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::ParseWords::parse_line()`, so see the Text::ParseWords manpage 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 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 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 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 importation 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

File::DosGlob - DOS like globbing and then some