CURLOPT_WILDCARDMATCH(3) Library Functions Manual CURLOPT_WILDCARDMATCH(3)

CURLOPT_WILDCARDMATCH - directory wildcard transfers

#include <curl/curl.h>
CURLcode curl_easy_setopt(CURL *handle, CURLOPT_WILDCARDMATCH, long onoff);

Set onoff to 1 if you want to transfer multiple files according to a filename pattern. The pattern can be specified as part of the CURLOPT_URL(3) option, using an fnmatch-like pattern (Shell Pattern Matching) in the last part of URL (filename).

By default, libcurl uses its internal wildcard matching implementation. You can provide your own matching function by the CURLOPT_FNMATCH_FUNCTION(3) option.

A brief introduction of its syntax follows:

* - ASTERISK
ftp://example.com/some/path/*.txt

for all txt's from the root directory. Only two asterisks are allowed within the same pattern string.

? - QUESTION MARK
Question mark matches any (exactly one) character.

ftp://example.com/some/path/photo?.jpg
[ - BRACKET EXPRESSION
The left bracket opens a bracket expression. The question mark and asterisk have no special meaning in a bracket expression. Each bracket expression ends by the right bracket and matches exactly one character. Some examples follow:

[a-zA-Z0-9] or [f-gF-G] - character interval

[abc] - character enumeration

[^abc] or [!abc] - negation

[[:name:]] class expression. Supported classes are alnum,lower, space, alpha, digit, print, upper, blank, graph, xdigit.

[][-!^] - special case - matches only '-', ']', '[', '!' or '^'. These characters have no special purpose.

[[]] - escape syntax. Matches '[', ']' or 'e'.

Using the rules above, a filename pattern can be constructed:

ftp://example.com/some/path/[a-z[:upper:]\].jpg

This feature is only supported for FTP download.

extern long begin_cb(struct curl_fileinfo *, void *, int);
extern long end_cb(void *ptr);
int main(void)
{
  CURL *curl = curl_easy_init();
  if(curl) {
    /* turn on wildcard matching */
    curl_easy_setopt(curl, CURLOPT_WILDCARDMATCH, 1L);
    /* callback is called before download of concrete file started */
    curl_easy_setopt(curl, CURLOPT_CHUNK_BGN_FUNCTION, begin_cb);
    /* callback is called after data from the file have been transferred */
    curl_easy_setopt(curl, CURLOPT_CHUNK_END_FUNCTION, end_cb);
    /* See more on https://curl.se/libcurl/c/ftp-wildcard.html */
  }
}

Added in 7.21.0

Returns CURLE_OK if the option is supported, and CURLE_UNKNOWN_OPTION if not.

CURLOPT_CHUNK_BGN_FUNCTION(3), CURLOPT_CHUNK_END_FUNCTION(3), CURLOPT_FNMATCH_FUNCTION(3), CURLOPT_URL(3)

March 12 2024 libcurl