WORDEXP(3) BSD Library Functions Manual WORDEXP(3)

NAME
     wwoorrddeexxpp - perform shell-style word expansions

SYNOPSIS
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     int
     wwoorrddeexxpp(const char * restrict words, wordexpt * restrict we, int flags);

     void
     wwoorrddffrreeee(wordexpt *we);

DESCRIPTION
     The wwoorrddeexxpp() function performs shell-style word expansion on words and
     places the list of words into the wewordv member of we, and the number
     of words into wewordc.

     The flags argument (see BUGS) is the bitwise inclusive OR of any of the
     following constants:

     WRDEAPPEND   Append the words to those generated by a previous call to
                   wwoorrddeexxpp().

     WRDEDOOFS    As many NULL pointers as are specified by the weoffs mem-
                   ber of we are added to the front of wewordv.

     WRDENOCMD    Disallow command substitution in words.  See the note in
                   BUGS before using this.

     WRDEREUSE    The we argument was passed to a previous successful call to
                   wwoorrddeexxpp() but has not been passed to wwoorrddffrreeee().  The
                   implementation may reuse the space allocated to it.

     WRDESHOWERR  Do not redirect shell error messages to /dev/null.

     WRDEUNDEF    Report error on an attempt to expand an undefined shell
                   variable.

     The wordexpt structure is defined in  as:

           typedef struct {
                   sizet  wewordc;       /* count of words matched */
                   char    **wewordv;     /* pointer to list of words */
                   sizet  weoffs;        /* slots to reserve in wewordv */
           } wordexpt;

     The wwoorrddffrreeee() function frees the memory allocated by wwoorrddeexxpp().

RETURN VALUES
     The wwoorrddeexxpp() function returns zero if successful, otherwise it returns
     one of the following error codes:

     WRDEBADCHAR  The words argument contains one of the following unquoted
                   characters: , `|', `&', `;', `<', `>', `(', `)',
                   `{', `}'.

     WRDEBADVAL   An attempt was made to expand an undefined shell variable
                   and WRDEUNDEF is set in flags.

     WRDECMDSUB   An attempt was made to use command substitution and
                   WRDENOCMD is set in flags.

     WRDENOSPACE  Not enough memory to store the result.

     WRDESYNTAX   Shell syntax error in words.

     The wwoorrddffrreeee() function returns no value.

EEXXAAMMPPLLEESS
     Invoke the editor on all .c files in the current directory and /etc/motd
     (error checking omitted):

           wordexpt we;

           wordexp("${EDITOR:-vi} *.c /etc/motd", &we, 0);
           execvp(we->wewordv[0], we->wewordv);

SEE ALSO
     sh(1), fnmatch(3), glob(3), popen(3), system(3)

BUGS
     This version of wwoorrkkeexxpp() ignores the value of the flags argument.

COPYRIGHT
     Copyright 1995-2002 University Corporation for Atmospheric
     Research/Unidata

     Portions of this software were developed by the Unidata Program at the
     University Corporation for Atmospheric Research.

BSD                            December 27, 2002                           BSD