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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 = 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 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 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

Index for Section 3

Alphabetical listing for F

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