A simple glob function that returns a vector of strings for POSIX

glob.cpp

#include <glob.h>
#include <vector>
#include <string>

namespace util
{

std::vector<std::string> glob(const std::string& pattern) {
    glob_t glob_result = {0}; // zero initialize

    // do the glob operation
    int return_value = ::glob(pattern.c_str(), GLOB_TILDE, NULL, &glob_result);

    if(return_value != 0) throw std::runtime_error(std::strerror(errno));

    // collect all the filenames into a std::vector<std::string>
    // using the vector constructor that takes two iterators
    std::vector<std::string> filenames(
        glob_result.gl_pathv, glob_result.gl_pathv + glob_result.gl_pathc);

    // cleanup
    globfree(&glob_result);

    // done
    return filenames;
}
}