wordexp.h(7POSIX)

💖 wordexp.h(7POSIX) — word-expansion types 💖

okay bestie, so this page is from the POSIX Programmer's Manual, and we're talking about wordexp.h — the header that holds all the word-expansion types. 🎀

Quick heads-up before we dive in: this manual page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual. The Linux implementation of this interface may differ (so pls consult the corresponding Linux manual page for the deets on Linux behavior), or the interface may not be implemented on Linux at all. 🙈

---

✨ NAME ✨

wordexp.h — word-expansion types

---

🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

#include <wordexp.h>

---

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

The <wordexp.h> header shall define the structures and symbolic constants used by the wordexp() and wordfree() functions. periodt.

🫶 the struct (it's giving main character)

The <wordexp.h> header shall define the wordexp_t structure type, which shall include at least the following members:

size_t   we_wordc  Count of words matched by words.
char   **we_wordv  Pointer to list of expanded words.
size_t   we_offs   Slots to reserve at the beginning of we_wordv.

💅 the flags

The <wordexp.h> header shall define the following symbolic constants for use as flags for the wordexp() function:

• WRDE_APPEND — Append words to those previously generated.
• WRDE_DOOFFS — Number of null pointers to prepend to we_wordv.
• WRDE_NOCMD — Fail if command substitution is requested.
• WRDE_REUSE — The pwordexp argument was passed to a previous successful call to wordexp(), and has not been passed to wordfree(). The result is the same as if the application had called wordfree() and then called wordexp() without WRDE_REUSE.
• WRDE_SHOWERR — Do not redirect stderr to /dev/null.
• WRDE_UNDEF — Report error on an attempt to expand an undefined shell variable.

😭 the error return values

The <wordexp.h> header shall define the following symbolic constants as error return values:

• WRDE_BADCHAR — One of the unquoted characters—<newline>, '|', '&', ';', '<', '>', '(', ')', '{', '}'—appears in words in an inappropriate context.
• WRDE_BADVAL — Reference to undefined shell variable when WRDE_UNDEF is set in flags.
• WRDE_CMDSUB — Command substitution requested when WRDE_NOCMD was set in flags.
• WRDE_NOSPACE — Attempt to allocate memory failed.
• WRDE_SYNTAX — Shell syntax error, such as unbalanced parentheses or unterminated string.

🧚 size_t moment

The <wordexp.h> header shall define the size_t type as described in <stddef.h>.

⭐ the functions

The following shall be declared as functions and may also be defined as macros. Function prototypes shall be provided.

int  wordexp(const char *restrict, wordexp_t *restrict, int);
void wordfree(wordexp_t *);

The following sections are informative. (iykyk ✨)

---

🌈 APPLICATION USAGE 🌈

None. literally nothing. iconic of her tbh.

---

💜 RATIONALE 💜

None.

---

🍓 FUTURE DIRECTIONS 🍓

None.

---

👑 SEE ALSO 👑

• <stddef.h>
• The System Interfaces volume of POSIX.1‐2017, Section 2.6, Word Expansions

---

🎀 COPYRIGHT 🎀

Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form from IEEE Std 1003.1-2017, Standard for Information Technology -- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base Specifications Issue 7, 2018 Edition, Copyright (C) 2018 by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc and The Open Group. In the event of any discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard is the referee document. The original Standard can be obtained online at http://www.opengroup.org/unix/online.html .

Any typographical or formatting errors that appear in this page are most likely to have been introduced during the conversion of the source files to man page format. To report such errors, see https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/reporting_bugs.html .

---

and that's the whole vibe check, bestie 💖 this page came to you courtesy of IEEE/The Open Group, dated 2017, filed under wordexp.h(7POSIX) — slay, ate, no crumbs, periodt. 🫶✨