Re: GNAT.Regexp: Am I missing something?

[Jacob Sparre Andersen <sparre@nbi.dk>]

Marc:

> So, I anticipated that by doing:
> 
>    File_Regexp := Compile("*.log", Glob => True);
> 
> I would end up with a regular expression that would match filenames
> ending in ".log".  However, that's not what's happening, none of my
> ".log" files get matched with that expression.

I would guess that the problem is that the function actually expects
"true" regular expressions. I.e. "^.*[.]log$" and not "*.log".

> I know that GNAT.Regexp can work any way its creator want, but the
> behavior doesn't jive with my expectations based on its documentation
> claiming support for "wild card patterns used in file names by the Unix
> shell".

Hmm??? That is something else than regular expressions. Have you
tried with "true" regular expressions.
 
> Am I overlooking something?  I don't want "true" regular expressions,
> I'm just using this to filter filenames based on a user-supplied
> pattern, and their expectation would obviously be to use the
> filename-matching kind of pattern.

Would it be problematic to substitute "." with "[.]", "?" with "."
and "*" with ".*"? Enclosed between "^" and "$" your file name
pattern should then be transformed to a regular expression with
the same effect.

Jacob
-- 
"Any, sufficiently advanced, technology is indistinguishable from magic."