CURLOPT_WILDCARDMATCH(3) Library Functions Manual CURLOPT_WILDCARDMATCH(3)
NAME
CURLOPT_WILDCARDMATCH - directory wildcard transfers
SYNOPSIS
#include <curl/curl.h>
CURLcode curl_easy_setopt(CURL *handle, CURLOPT_WILDCARDMATCH, long onoff);
DESCRIPTION
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 CUR-
LOPT_URL(3) option, using an fnmatch-like pattern (Shell Pattern Match-
ing) 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_FUNC-
TION(3) option.
A brief introduction of its syntax follows:
* - ASTERISK
ftp://example.com/some/path/*.txt
matches all .txt files in 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 ex-
actly 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
PROTOCOLS
This functionality affects ftp only
EXAMPLE
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 */
}
}
AVAILABILITY
Added in curl 7.21.0
RETURN VALUE
curl_easy_setopt(3) returns a CURLcode indicating success or error.
CURLE_OK (0) means everything was OK, non-zero means an error occurred,
see libcurl-errors(3).
SEE ALSO
CURLOPT_CHUNK_BGN_FUNCTION(3), CURLOPT_CHUNK_END_FUNCTION(3), CUR-
LOPT_FNMATCH_FUNCTION(3), CURLOPT_URL(3)
libcurl 2026-07-12 CURLOPT_WILDCARDMATCH(3)
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