RE: Re: [PHP] file_exists and wildcard/regex

> -----Original Message----- > From: Per Jessen [mailto:per@computer.org] > Sent: Wednesday, December 10, 2008 1:43 AM > To: php-general@lists.php.net > Subject: Re: [PHP] file_exists and wildcard/regex > > Ashley Sheridan wrote: > > > If you're on a Linux system, you could look at ls and the regular > > expressions it lets you use with it. You could exec out and get the > > returned results. Also, as it's a system call, it should be very > > speedy. > > 'ls' is just a plain binary (/bin/ls), not a system call. The regex > functionality is part of the shell, usually bash. I think the fact that you have to exec() in order to perform it disqualifies it from being a system call. Ash - a system call is "a mechanism for software to request a particular kernel service." There's a somewhat-outdated list from Linux kernel 2.2 at [1]. You might be able to get crafty with sys_*stat, but I wouldn't recommend it. ;) FWIW, I would probably do the file search like this (UNTESTED): <?php $filereg = '/bfile[1-9]?\d+\.txt/i'; $pathstr = '/whatever/your/path/is'; if(is_dir($pathstr)) { if($dir = opendir($pathstr)) { $found = false; while(($file = readdir($dir)) !== false && !$found) { if(preg_match($filereg, $file) > 0) { echo $file . '<br />'; $found = true; } } closedir($dir); } } ?> If you want back more than the first match, do away with the $found -related stuff. 1. http://docs.cs.up.ac.za/programming/asm/derick_tut/syscalls.html HTH, // Todd