From mboxrd@z Thu Jan  1 00:00:00 1970
X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me
X-Spam-Level: 
X-Spam-Status: No, score=-0.3 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,
	REPLYTO_WITHOUT_TO_CC autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4
Path: 
 eternal-september.org!reader01.eternal-september.org!reader02.eternal-september.org!feeder.eternal-september.org!news.swapon.de!fu-berlin.de!uni-berlin.de!individual.net!not-for-mail
From: Bill Findlay <findlaybill@blueyonder.co.uk>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
Subject: Re: File name wild cards
Date: Thu, 16 Aug 2018 15:26:56 +0100
Organization: none
Message-ID: <0001HW.2125C1300B5101E870000F8CF2CF@news.individual.net>
References: <0001HW.2124C8650B16B24770000F8CF2CF@news.individual.net>
 <pl3a5c$rre$1@dont-email.me>
Reply-To: findlaybill@blueyonder.co.uk
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
X-Trace: individual.net yoLpDf+ojxtcCW/1WGCAJQrBwu95yPE35oTNsxV0YqBJIoSfGP
X-Orig-Path: not-for-mail
Cancel-Lock: sha1:HTESsPTj5QADRS9Xp5ZaobLpIlY=
User-Agent: Hogwasher/5.19
Xref: reader02.eternal-september.org comp.lang.ada:54181
Date: 2018-08-16T15:26:56+01:00
List-Id: <comp.lang.ada>

On 16 Aug 2018, Jeffrey R. Carter wrote
(in article <pl3a5c$rre$1@dont-email.me>):

> On 08/15/2018 10:45 PM, Bill Findlay wrote:
> > Can anyone point me to a portable way of doing wildcard filename lookups?
> >
> > In Ada.Directories we have;
> >
> > > type Search_Type is limited private;
> > > procedure Start_Search (Search: in out Search_Type;
> > > Directory: in String;
> > > Pattern: in String;
> > > Filter: in Filter_Type := (others =>  True));
> >
> > etc
> > But the interpretation of Pattern is implementation defined.
>
> I interpret this as being like the Form parameter for opening a file. It's
> whatever's meaningful for the actual platform being used.
>
> There's no way to be completely portable, since even the way one specifies a
> directory can vary significantly between file systems.

I had been told that Java had a portable way of doing it, but was sceptical
for exactly the reason you state.

> Assuming you have a way of specifying the directory that is acceptably portable
> for your uses, one way to portably select only files that match some pattern is
> to pass Pattern =>  "" and select files that match your pattern internally,
> perhaps using a regular-expression pkg.

Simple, obvious, why didn't I think of that? 8-)

Thanks, Jeff.

-- 
Bill Findlay