PMATCH(9)

💅 pmatch(9) — kernel dev manual realness

okay so bestie, welcome to PMATCH(9) from the Kernel Developer's Manual — yes we're in kernel land, bring your flashcards 🎀

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✨ NAME ✨

pmatch — it does pattern matching on strings, that's the whole vibe 💖

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🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

#include <sys/systm.h>

int
pmatch(const char *string, const char *pattern, const char **estr);

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🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

So what it does is extract a substring matching pattern from string — like it goes digging in there and pulls out the match for you 🫶

And if estr isn't NULL, it points at the end of the longest exact or substring match. iconic, honestly.

pmatch() uses these metacharacters, and bestie you will be memorizing them:

• ? — matches any single character. one (1) character, no more, no cap 💅
• * — matches any character 0 or more times. zero, one, a hundred, it does not care ✨
• [ — defines a range of characters that will match. the range is defined by 2 characters separated by a -. and — important — the range definition has to end with a ]. also, a ^ following the [ will negate the range. lowkey chef's kiss 🌈

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👑 RETURN VALUES 👑

pmatch() will return:

• 2 — exact match, we ate 🔥
• 1 — substring match, still slay
• 0 — no match 😭
• -1 — if an error occurs 💀

fr fr remember these are literal numbers, not booleans — 2 is not 1, do not come for me 🙈

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mwah 💜 that's the whole page. this one came from Debian, dated October 12, 2003 — vintage, but still serving. go forth and match some patterns, bestie 🧚‍♀️⭐