Re: using wildcard character * in perlscript command line

foreach my $arg (@ARGV) {
  foreach (glob $arg) {
    print;
  }
}
[download]

The expansion you're seeing is due to the unix shell expanding wildcards prior to giving them over to the command being run, while Windows thinks that each program should have to do that itself, duplicating the same code all over your system.

Update:Taking BrowserUk's solution and combining it comes up with yet another WTDI... which, ashamedly, I should have done in the first place, since I use map for this type of thing all over the place in my own code.

foeach (map { glob } @ARGV) {
  print;
}
[download]

(I prefer the block form of map, but you can do with that as you will.)

Comment on Re: using wildcard character * in perlscript command line Select or Download Code

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
OT: Advantage of not expanding wildcard in the shell by ikegami (Patriarch) on Jan 28, 2005 at 15:27 UTC
There is an advantage to shell not expanding wildcards. It allows for doing: `copy .txt .bak`. To do the same in a shell which expand wildcards requires a loop in the shell, making it harder to run simple commands AND duplicating the same code all over your system. I wouldn't mind being able to do `copy *.txt 's/\.txt$/.bak/'`.	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: OT: Advantage of not expanding wildcard in the shell by cog (Parson) on Jan 28, 2005 at 16:32 UTC
You just have to quote the arguments, and they won't be expanded: `move ".txt" ".html"` Of course the `move` command displayed here is just an example, which you'd have to code yourself...	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: OT: Advantage of not expanding wildcard in the shell by BrowserUk (Patriarch) on Jan 28, 2005 at 16:06 UTC
Another sideeffect is that you don't end up with needing xargs or find -exec and all the similar solutions to work around wildcards that produce huge lists. The app. can choose--(IMO) should always choose--to use an iterator approach rather than a generator. Examine what is said, not who speaks. Silence betokens consent. Love the truth but pardon error.	[reply]
Re^2: OT: Advantage of not expanding wildcard in the shell by Aristotle (Chancellor) on Jan 28, 2005 at 17:13 UTC
Of course that also means the overwhelming majority of commands on Windows only take a single file as parameter and do not expand wildcards, because the programmer didn't know how or couldn't be bothered to go through the trouble (considering that FindFirst/FindNext API, I can sympathize). So you end up with a `DEL` command you have to write a loop around if you want to delete more than one file. Even when coammds do take wildcards, you often end up having to write loops: there is no way to write the equivalent of `cp .pl .pm .html projects/foowebapp/` because `COPY` expects exactly one source argument, whether it's a wildcard or not. At least there are replacement shells like 4DOS which fix the builtins. Makeshifts last the longest.*	[reply]
Re^3: OT: Advantage of not expanding wildcard in the shell by BrowserUk (Patriarch) on Jan 28, 2005 at 18:03 UTC
Re^4: OT: Advantage of not expanding wildcard in the shell by Aristotle (Chancellor) on Jan 28, 2005 at 20:41 UTC
Re^4: OT: Advantage of not expanding wildcard in the shell by BUU (Prior) on Jan 28, 2005 at 19:14 UTC
Some notes below your chosen depth have not been shown here
Re: OT: Advantage of not expanding wildcard in the shell by Aristotle (Chancellor) on Jan 28, 2005 at 17:16 UTC
`man 1 rename`? For more complex cases there's the rename script distributed with Perl… Makeshifts last the longest.	[reply]
Re: OT: Advantage of not expanding wildcard in the shell by Tuppence (Pilgrim) on Jan 28, 2005 at 20:45 UTC
look for 'rename.pl' by Larry Wall. Does exactly what you want.	[reply]
Re: OT: Advantage of not expanding wildcard in the shell by ambrus (Abbot) on Jan 28, 2005 at 21:17 UTC
Yes, I like that great feature in dos. It even works in norton commander: you select multiple files, press F6 (rename), and type a wildcard name such as ?????_0.* to rename all selected files.	[reply]
Re^2: using wildcard character * in perlscript command line by dorward (Curate) on Jan 28, 2005 at 16:38 UTC
The expansion you're seeing is due to the unix shell expanding wildcards prior to giving them over to the command being run However, you don't have to use cmd as your shell under Windows. You can install bash or another shell that comes from UNIX. Then I would be very surprised if you couldn't enjoy nice wildcard expansion under that OS.	[reply]
Re^2: using wildcard character * in perlscript command line by blazar (Canon) on Jan 29, 2005 at 08:34 UTC
`foreach my $arg (@ARGV) { foreach (glob $arg) { print; } }` [download] (Nah!) Since wildcard expansion "should" happen before the args are passed to the script, I like to do it all at once as early as possible: `BEGIN {@ARGV=map glob, @ARGV}` [download] And then the rest of code can plainly ignore what happened with no need of ad hoc interventions...	[reply] [d/l] [select]