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<TITLE>6.10 fnmatch --
Unix style filename pattern matching</TITLE>
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Unix style filename pattern matching">
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<H1><A NAME="SECTION0081000000000000000000">
6.10 <tt class=module>fnmatch</tt> --
         Unix style filename pattern matching</A>
</H1>

<P>


<P>
This module provides support for Unix shell-style wildcards, which
are <i>not</i> the same as regular expressions (which are documented
in the <tt class=module><a href="module-re.html">re</a></tt><a name="l2h-1210"></a> module).  The special
characters used in shell-style wildcards are:
<a name="l2h-1211"></a>

<P>

<DT><tt>*</tt>

<DL COMPACT><DD>matches everything
<DT><tt>?</tt>
<DD>matches any single character
<DT><tt>[</tt><var>seq</var><tt>]</tt>
<DD>matches any character in <var>seq</var>
<DT><tt>[!</tt><var>seq</var><tt>]</tt>
<DD>matches any character not in <var>seq</var>

</DL>

<P>
Note that the filename separator (<tt>'/'</tt> on Unix) is <i>not</i>
special to this module.  See module <tt class=module><a href="module-glob.html">glob</a></tt><a name="l2h-1212"></a>
for pathname expansion (<tt class=module><a href="module-glob.html">glob</a></tt> uses <tt class=function>fnmatch()</tt> to
match filename segments).

<P>
<dl><dt><b><a name="l2h-1208"><tt class=function>fnmatch</tt></a></b> (<var>filename, pattern</var>)
<dd>
Test whether the <var>filename</var> string matches the <var>pattern</var>
string, returning true or false.  If the operating system is
case-insensitive, then both parameters will be normalized to all
lower- or upper-case before the comparision is performed.  If you
require a case-sensitive comparision regardless of whether that's
standard for your operating system, use <tt class=function>fnmatchcase()</tt>
instead.
</dl>

<P>
<dl><dt><b><a name="l2h-1209"><tt class=function>fnmatchcase</tt></a></b> (<var>filename, pattern</var>)
<dd>
Test whether <var>filename</var> matches <var>pattern</var>, returning true or
false; the comparision is case-sensitive.
</dl>

<P>
<div class=seealso>
  <p class=heading><b>See Also:</b></p>

  <div class=seemodule>
<p>Module <b><tt class=module><a href="module-glob.html">glob</a></tt></b>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;(Shell-style path expansion)</p>
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