Pattern Matching
Literally, any string is a pattern. In general, though, a pattern is a
string intended to match, or be matched by, one or more other strings. The
pattern will usually contain one or more wildcards, but it doesn't need to.
The following wildcard characters are supported:
* matches zero or more characters
% matches zero or more characters, except spaces
? matches exactly one character
Assuming we have a variable $foo set to "hello there":
hello* /* pattern matches */
hello% /* pattern does not match */
hello%?% /* pattern matches */
h?llo?th?r? /* pattern matches */
Patterns may also contain multiple "branches". Each branch is tested when
a match attempt is made. Branches are formed with the \\[ \\] construct.
For example:
\\[foo bar\\]blah /* matches "fooblah" and "barblah" */
The branching construct may be used anywhere that wildcards are used,
including the various pattern matching functions, and in hook events.
See Also:
Expressions (7); match (6); on (4); pattern (6); rmatch (6); r pattern (6)
