Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!jpl-devvax!lwall
From: lwall@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV (Larry Wall)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.perl
Subject: Re: Help!  Need semi-basename
Message-ID: <8589@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV>
Date: 3 Jul 90 22:29:01 GMT
References: <1990Jul2.205216.3857@Matrix.COM>
Reply-To: lwall@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV (Larry Wall)
Organization: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA
Lines: 43

In article <1990Jul2.205216.3857@Matrix.COM> abc@matrx.matrix.com (Alan Clegg) writes:
: I need to strip a file name to a certain component in Perl, and am not sure
: how to go about doing it.
: 
: the file names are defined in a configuration file as follows:
: 	/file/name/and/sub/dirs/*/*
: 
: which I then expand into an array of 'real' names:
: 	@ary=<${name}>;
: 
: what I want to do at this point is make links to the files based on
: the expansion of the '*/*' in the config file.
: 
: For example, if a file expands into /file/name/and/sub/dirs/one/two, I want
: to link it to /otherfile/othername/and/othersub/otherdirs/one/two
: 
: I can't figure out how to strip off everything 'up-to' the wildcard.  Anybody
: know how to do what I am asking?  Anybody UNDERSTAND what I am asking??

Well, a filename is just a string, albeit a rather structured one.
Try something like

	($base,$wild) = $name =~ m#^([^*?[]*)/([^/]*[*?[].*)#;

The first [] matches the longest sequence of non-metacharacters it can,
subject to the constraint that the next character has to be a slash.
After that, it has to match some sequence of non-slash characters followed
by at least one metacharacter followed by the rest of the string.

If you're uncomfy with that, say

	@wild = split(m#/#, $name);
	@base = ();
	while (@wild) {
	    last if $wild[0] =~ /[*?[]/;
	    push(@base, shift(@wild));
	}
	$base = join('/', @base);
	$wild = join('/', @wild);

The first way's probably a bit faster, though.

Larry