From: Joel VanderWerf <vjoel@...>
Date: 2007-09-05T06:47:59+09:00
Subject: Re: Why does File.exists? not support regexp? It would be very handfull?

Gary Wright wrote:
> 
> On Sep 4, 2007, at 12:00 PM, kazaam wrote:
>> On Wed, 5 Sep 2007 00:52:57 +0900
>> Daniel Berger <djberg96@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Dir["fglrx*"].each{ |file| File.delete(file) }
>>>
>> that's pretty much the same like: system('rm -f fglrx*') but I'm 
>> asking why one doesn't allow regexpr into File.exists?
> 
> I would guess it is because file name pattern matching
> is subtly different from string pattern matching.  In
> particular you have the problem of directory hierarchies
> and how to handle the separator character (typically '/').
> The common file pattern syntax is also *not* the same
> as general regular expressions.

The slocate(1) program does have a -r option for searching file paths 
with a regex, so there is some precedent.

-- 
       vjoel : Joel VanderWerf : path berkeley edu : 510 665 3407