19.3.1 Syntax of Logical Pathname Namestrings

The syntax of a logical pathname namestring is as follows. (Note that unlike many notational descriptions in this document, this is a syntactic description of character sequences, not a structural description of objects.)

logical-pathname ::=[!host host-marker]                       [!relative-directory-marker] {!directory directory-marker}*                       [!name] [type-marker !type [version-marker !version]]

host ::=!word

directory ::=!word | !wildcard-word | !wild-inferiors-word

name ::=!word | !wildcard-word

type ::=!word | !wildcard-word

version ::=!pos-int | newest-word | wildcard-version

host-marker—a colon.

relative-directory-marker—a semicolon.

directory-marker—a semicolon.

type-marker—a dot.

version-marker—a dot.

wild-inferiors-word—The two character sequence “**” (two asterisks).

newest-word—The six character sequence “newest” or the six character sequence “NEWEST”.

wildcard-version—an asterisk.

wildcard-word—one or more asterisks, uppercase letters, digits, and hyphens, including at least one asterisk, with no two asterisks adjacent.

word—one or more uppercase letters, digits, and hyphens.

pos-int—a positive integer.