<!-- ##### SECTION Title ##### -->Glob-style pattern matching<!-- ##### SECTION Short_Description ##### -->matches strings against patterns containing '*' (wildcard) and '?' (joker).<!-- ##### SECTION Long_Description ##### --><para>The <function>g_pattern_match*</function> functions match a string against a pattern containing '*' and '?' wildcards with similar semantics as the standard glob() function: '*' matches an arbitrary, possibly empty, string, '?' matches an arbitrary character.</para><para>Note that in contrast to glob(), the '/' character<emphasis>can</emphasis> be matched by the wildcards, there are no'[...]' character ranges and '*' and '?' can <emphasis>not</emphasis>be escaped to include them literally in a pattern. </para><para>When multiple strings must be matched against the same pattern, itis better to compile the pattern to a #GPatternSpec using g_pattern_spec_new() and use g_pattern_match_string() instead of g_pattern_match_simple().  This avoids the overhead of repeated pattern compilation.</para><!-- ##### SECTION See_Also ##### --><para></para><!-- ##### SECTION Stability_Level ##### --><!-- ##### STRUCT GPatternSpec ##### --><para>A <structname>GPatternSpec</structname> is the 'compiled' form of a pattern.This structure is opaque and its fields cannot be accessed directly.</para><!-- ##### FUNCTION g_pattern_spec_new ##### --><para>Compiles a pattern to a #GPatternSpec.</para>@pattern: a zero-terminated UTF-8 encoded string.@Returns: a newly-allocated #GPatternSpec.<!-- ##### FUNCTION g_pattern_spec_free ##### --><para>Frees the memory allocated for the #GPatternSpec.</para>@pspec: a #GPatternSpec.<!-- ##### FUNCTION g_pattern_spec_equal ##### --><para>Compares two compiled pattern specs and returns whether theywill match the same set of strings.</para>@pspec1: a #GPatternSpec.@pspec2: another #GPatternSpec.@Returns: Whether the compiled patterns are equal.<!-- ##### FUNCTION g_pattern_match ##### --><para>Matches a string against a compiled pattern. Passing the correct length of thestring given is mandatory. The reversed string can be omitted by passing %NULL,this is more efficient if the reversed version of the string to be matched isnot at hand, as g_pattern_match() will only construct it if the compiled patternrequires reverse matches.</para><para>Note that, if the user code will (possibly) match a string against a multitude of patterns containing wildcards, chances are high that some patterns will require a reversed string. In this case, it's more efficient to provide the reversed string to avoid multiple constructions thereof in the various calls tog_pattern_match().</para><para>Note also that the reverse of a UTF-8 encoded string can in general <emphasis>not</emphasis> be obtained by g_strreverse().This works only if the string doesn't contain any multibyte characters.Glib offers the g_utf_strreverse() function to reverse UTF-8 encoded strings.</para>@pspec: a #GPatternSpec.@string_length: the length of @string.@string: the UTF-8 encoded string to match.@string_reversed: the reverse of @string or %NULL.@Returns: %TRUE if @string matches @pspec.<!-- ##### FUNCTION g_pattern_match_string ##### --><para>Matches a string against a compiled pattern. If the string is tobe matched against more than one pattern, consider usingg_pattern_match() instead while supplying the reversed string.</para>@pspec: a #GPatternSpec.@string: the UTF-8 encoded string to match.@Returns: %TRUE if @string matches @pspec.<!-- ##### FUNCTION g_pattern_match_simple ##### --><para>Matches a string against a pattern given as a string.If this function is to be called in a loop, it's more efficient to compilethe pattern once with g_pattern_spec_new() and call g_pattern_match_string()repetively.</para>@pattern: the UTF-8 encoded pattern.@string: the UTF-8 encoded string to match.@Returns: %TRUE if @string matches @pspec.