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=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00
	autolearn=unavailable autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4
Path: 
 eternal-september.org!reader01.eternal-september.org!reader02.eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail
From: "Jeffrey R. Carter" <spam.jrcarter.not@spam.not.acm.org>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
Subject: Re: File name wild cards
Date: Thu, 16 Aug 2018 09:46:49 +0200
Organization: Also freenews.netfront.net; news.tornevall.net;
 news.eternal-september.org
Message-ID: <pl3a5c$rre$1@dont-email.me>
References: <0001HW.2124C8650B16B24770000F8CF2CF@news.individual.net>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=flowed
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Injection-Date: Thu, 16 Aug 2018 07:46:53 -0000 (UTC)
Injection-Info: reader02.eternal-september.org;
 posting-host="d8e838c19e1f4a700525e11843de3a5d";
	logging-data="28526"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org";
	posting-account="U2FsdGVkX1817rCPw+df/53lB+bH9sAYpeXvIgaWLt8="
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:52.0) Gecko/20100101
 Thunderbird/52.9.1
Cancel-Lock: sha1:WSrzSO9xzaZj6NhFzsNFisgxiC0=
In-Reply-To: <0001HW.2124C8650B16B24770000F8CF2CF@news.individual.net>
Content-Language: en-US
Xref: reader02.eternal-september.org comp.lang.ada:54175
Date: 2018-08-16T09:46:49+02:00
List-Id: <comp.lang.ada>

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.

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.

However, if by portable you mean between Unix-like and Windows systems, and you 
restrict yourself to the current directory (or directories you can construct 
from it using Hierarchical_File_Names), then I've found that '*' and '?' are 
portable enough for my needs.

For example, the program that selected the signature on this msg used Directory 
=> "." and Pattern => "signature???.txt".

-- 
Jeff Carter
"Have you gone berserk? Can't you see that that man is a ni?"
Blazing Saddles
38