# File::FnMatch - phpMan

## NAME
    [File::FnMatch] - simple filename and pathname matching

## SYNOPSIS
      use [File::FnMatch] qw(:fnmatch);    # import everything

      # shell-style: match "/a/bc", but not "/a/.bc" nor "/a/b/c"
      fnmatch("/a/*", $fn, FNM_PATHNAME|FNM_PERIOD);

      # find our A- executables only
      grep { fnmatch("A-*.exe", $_) } readdir SOMEDIR;

## DESCRIPTION
    [File::FnMatch::fnmatch]() provides simple, shell-like pattern matching.

    Though considerably less powerful than regular expressions, shell
    patterns are nonetheless useful and familiar to a large audience of
    end-users.

  Functions
    fnmatch ( PATTERN, STRING [, FLAGS] )
        Returns true if *PATTERN* matches *STRING*, undef otherwise. *FLAGS*
        may be the bitwise OR'ing of any supported FNM_* constants (see
        below).

  Constants
    FNM_NOESCAPE
        Do not treat a backslash ('\') in *PATTERN* specially. Otherwise, a
        backslash escapes the following character.

    FNM_PATHNAME
        Prohibit wildcards from matching a slash ('/').

    FNM_PERIOD
        Prohibit wildcards from matching a period ('.') at the start of a
        string and, if FNM_PATHNAME is also given, immediately after a
        slash.

    Other possibilities include at least FNM_CASEFOLD (compare "qr//i"),
    FNM_LEADING_DIR to restrict matching to everything before the first '/',
    FNM_FILE_NAME as a synonym for FNM_PATHNAME, and the rather more exotic
    FNM_EXTMATCH. Consult your system documentation for details.

  EXPORT
    None by default. The export tag ":fnmatch" exports the fnmatch function
    and all available FNM_* constants.

## PATTERN SYNTAX
    Wildcards are the question mark ('?') to match any single character and
    the asterisk ('*') to match zero or more characters. FNM_PATHNAME and
    FNM_PERIOD restrict the scope of the wildcards, notably supporting the
    UNIX convention of concealing "dotfiles":

    Bracket expressions, enclosed by '[' and ']', match any of a set of
    characters specified explicitly ("[abcdef]"), as a range ("[a-f0-9]"),
    or as the combination these ("[a-f0-9XYZ]"). Additionally, many
    implementations support named character classes such as "[[:xdigit:]]".
    Character sets may be negated with an initial '!' ("[![:space:]]").

    Locale influences the meaning of fnmatch() patterns.

## CAVEATS
    Most UNIX-like systems provide an fnmatch implementation. This module
    will not work on platforms lacking an implementation, most notably
    Win32.

## SEE ALSO
    [File::Glob], [POSIX::setlocale], [fnmatch(3)]

## AUTHOR
    Michael J. Pomraning

    Please report bugs to <mjp-perl AT pilcrow.madison.wi.us>

## COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE
    Copyright 2005 by Michael J. Pomraning

    This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
    under the same terms as Perl itself.