Chapter 10. Spring.NET miscellanea

10.1. Introduction

This chapter contains miscellanea information on features, goodies, caveats that does not belong to any paricular area.

10.2. PathMatcher

Spring.Util.PathMatcher provides Ant/NAnt-like path name matching features.

To do the match, you use the method: 

static bool Match(string pattern, string path)

If you want to decide if case is important or not use the method: 

static bool Match(string pattern, string path, bool ignoreCase)

10.2.1. General rules

To build your pattern, you use the *, ? and ** building blocks:

  • *: matches any number of non slash characters;

  • ?: matches exactly 1 (one) non slash/dot character;

  • **: matches any subdirectory, without taking care of the depth;

10.2.2. Matching filenames

A file name can be matched using the following notation: 

foo?bar.*

matches: 

fooAbar.txt
foo1bar.txt
foo_bar.txt
foo-bar.txt

does not match: 

foo.bar.txt
foo/bar.txt
foo\bar.txt

The classical all files pattern: 

*.*

matches: 

foo.db
.db
foo
foo.bar.db
foo.db.db
db.db.db

does not match: 

c:/
c:/foo.db
c:/foo
c:/.db
c:/foo.foo.db
//server/foo

10.2.3. Matching subdirectories

A directory name can be matched at any depth level using the following notation: 

**/db/**

That pattern matches the following paths: 

/db
//server/db
c:/db
c:/spring/app/db/foo.db
//Program Files/App/spaced dir/db/foo.db
/home/spring/spaced dir/db/v1/foo.db

but does not match these: 

c:/spring/app/db-v1/foo.db
/home/spring/spaced dir/db-v1/foo.db

You can compose subdirectories to match like this: 

**/bin/**/tmp/**

That pattern matches the following paths: 

c:/spring/foo/bin/bar/tmp/a
c:/spring/foo/bin/tmp/a/b.c

but does not match these: 

c:/spring/foo/bin/bar/temp/a
c:/tmp/foo/bin/bar/a/b.c

You can use more advanced patterns: 

**/.spring-assemblies*/**

matches: 

c:/.spring-assemblies
c:/.spring-assembliesabcd73xs
c:/app/.spring-assembliesabcd73xs
c:/app/.spring-assembliesabcd73xs/foo.dll
//server/app/.spring-assembliesabcd73xs

does not match: 

c:/app/.spring-assemblie

10.2.4. Case does matter, slashes don't

.NET is expected to be a cross-platform development ... platform. So, PathMatcher will match taking care of the case of the pattern and the case of the path. For example: 

**/db/**/*.DB

matches: 

c:/spring/service/deploy/app/db/foo.DB

but does not match: 

c:/spring/service/deploy/app/DB/foo.DB
c:spring/service/deploy/app/spaced dir/DB/foo.DB
//server/share/service/deploy/app/DB/backup/foo.db

If you do not matter about case, you should explicitly tell the Pathmatcher.

Back and forward slashes, in the very same cross-platform spirit, are not important: 

spring/foo.bar

matches all the following paths: 

c:\spring\foo.bar
c:/spring\foo.bar
c:/spring/foo.bar
/spring/foo.bar
\spring\foo.bar
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