Expanding Wildcard Arguments

Microsoft Specific

When running a C program, you can use either of the two wildcards — the question mark (?) and the asterisk (*) — to specify filename and path arguments on the command line.

Command-line arguments are handled by a routine called _setargv (or _wsetargv in the wide-character environment), which by default does not expand wildcards into separate strings in the argv string array. You can replace the normal _setargv routine with a more powerful version of _setargv that does handle wildcards by linking with the Setargv.obj file. If your program uses a wmain function, link with Wsetargv.obj.

To link with Setargv.obj or Wsetargv.obj, use the /link option. For example:

cl typeit.c /link setargv.obj

The wildcards are expanded in the same manner as operating system commands. (See your operating system user's guide if you are unfamiliar with wildcards.)

END Microsoft Specific

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