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WORDEXP(3)                 Linux Programmer's Manual                WORDEXP(3)
NAME
       wordexp, wordfree - perform word expansion like a posix-shell
SYNOPSIS
       #include <wordexp.h>
       int wordexp(const char *s, wordexp_t *p, int flags);
       void wordfree(wordexp_t *p);
   Feature Test Macro Requirements for glibc (see feature_test_macros(7)):
       wordexp(), wordfree(): _XOPEN_SOURCE
DESCRIPTION
       The  function wordexp() performs a shell-like expansion of the string s
       and returns the result in the structure pointed to by p.  The data type
       wordexp_t  is  a  structure  that  at  least  has  the fields we_wordc,
       we_wordv, and we_offs.  The field we_wordc is a size_t that  gives  the
       number of words in the expansion of s.  The field we_wordv is a char **
       that points to the array of words found.  The  field  we_offs  of  type
       size_t  is  sometimes  (depending on flags, see below) used to indicate
       the number of initial elements in the we_wordv  array  that  should  be
       filled with NULLs.
       The  function  wordfree()  frees the allocated memory again.  More pre-
       cisely, it does not free its argument, but it frees the array  we_wordv
       and the strings that points to.
   The string argument
       Since  the  expansion  is  the  same as the expansion by the shell (see
       sh(1)) of the parameters to a command, the string s  must  not  contain
       characters  that would be illegal in shell command parameters.  In par-
       ticular, there must not be any unescaped newline or |, &, ;, <,  >,  (,
       ),  {, } characters outside a command substitution or parameter substi-
       tution context.
       If the argument s contains a word that starts with an unquoted  comment
       character #, then it is unspecified whether that word and all following
       words are ignored, or the # is treated as a non-comment character.
   The expansion
       The expansion done consists of the following  stages:  tilde  expansion
       (replacing  ~user  by  user's  home  directory),  variable substitution
       (replacing $FOO by the value of the environment variable FOO),  command
       substitution  (replacing  $(command) or `command` by the output of com-
       mand), arithmetic expansion, field splitting, wildcard expansion, quote
       removal.
       The  result of expansion of special parameters ($@, $*, $#, $?, $-, $$,
       $!, $0) is unspecified.
       Field splitting is done using the environment variable $IFS.  If it  is
       not set, the field separators are space, tab and newline.
   The output array
       The array we_wordv contains the words found, followed by a NULL.
   The flags argument
       The flag argument is a bitwise inclusive OR of the following values:
       WRDE_APPEND
              Append  the  words  found to the array resulting from a previous
              call.
       WRDE_DOOFFS
              Insert we_offs initial NULLs in the array we_wordv.  (These  are
              not counted in the returned we_wordc.)
       WRDE_NOCMD
              Don't do command substitution.
       WRDE_REUSE
              The  argument  p resulted from a previous call to wordexp(), and
              wordfree() was not called.  Reuse the allocated storage.
       WRDE_SHOWERR
              Normally during command substitution  stderr  is  redirected  to
              /dev/null.   This  flag specifies that stderr is not to be redi-
              rected.
       WRDE_UNDEF
              Consider it an error if an undefined shell variable is expanded.
RETURN VALUE
       In case of success 0 is returned.  In case of error one of the  follow-
       ing five values is returned.
       WRDE_BADCHAR
              Illegal  occurrence of newline or one of |, &, ;, <, >, (, ), {,
              }.
       WRDE_BADVAL
              An undefined shell variable was referenced, and  the  WRDE_UNDEF
              flag told us to consider this an error.
       WRDE_CMDSUB
              Command  substitution requested, but the WRDE_NOCMD flag told us
              to consider this an error.
       WRDE_NOSPACE
              Out of memory.
       WRDE_SYNTAX
              Shell syntax error, such as unbalanced parentheses or  unmatched
              quotes.
VERSIONS
       wordexp() and wordfree() are provided in glibc since version 2.1.
ATTRIBUTES
       For   an   explanation   of   the  terms  used  in  this  section,  see
       attributes(7).
       +-----------+---------------+--------------------------------+
       |Interface  | Attribute     | Value                          |
       +-----------+---------------+--------------------------------+
       |wordexp()  | Thread safety | MT-Unsafe race:utent const:env |
       |           |               | env sig:ALRM timer locale      |
       +-----------+---------------+--------------------------------+
       |wordfree() | Thread safety | MT-Safe                        |
       +-----------+---------------+--------------------------------+
       In the above table, utent in race:utent signifies that if  any  of  the
       functions setutent(3), getutent(3), or endutent(3) are used in parallel
       in different threads of a program, then data races could occur.   word-
       exp() calls those functions, so we use race:utent to remind users.
CONFORMING TO
       POSIX.1-2001, POSIX.1-2008.
EXAMPLE
       The  output  of  the following example program is approximately that of
       "ls [a-c]*.c".
       #include <stdio.h>
       #include <stdlib.h>
       #include <wordexp.h>
       int
       main(int argc, char **argv)
       {
           wordexp_t p;
           char **w;
           int i;
           wordexp("[a-c]*.c", &p, 0);
           w = p.we_wordv;
           for (i = 0; i < p.we_wordc; i++)
               printf("%s\n", w[i]);
           wordfree(&p);
           exit(EXIT_SUCCESS);
       }
SEE ALSO
       fnmatch(3), glob(3)
COLOPHON
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       description  of  the project, information about reporting bugs, and the
       latest    version    of    this    page,    can     be     found     at
       https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.
                                  2017-09-15                        WORDEXP(3)