tags-filter not working as expected when using asterisk

[JitGub]

osmium --version
osmium version 1.16.0
libosmium version 2.20.0
Supported PBF compression types: none zlib lz4

Ubuntu 24.04.2 LTS

tags-filter not working as expected when using asterisk

When using asterisk (“*”) the result is not always as expected.

A) When there is an asterisk in front of the search string, I only expect to find strings that end with the search string.
Does not work as expected.

B) When there is an asterisk behind the search string, I only expect to find strings that start with the search string.
Works as expected.

C) When there is an asterisk both in front and behind the search text, I only expect to find strings that contains the search string.
Works as expected.

Is this a bug or a missing feature?

Examples:

A1) Works as expected. Finds nothing.
osmium tags-filter dummy.osm --output-format=osm /name=*w --verbose &> A1.log

A2) Does not work as expected. Finds too many. Expected instead only string that end with y.
osmium tags-filter dummy.osm --output-format=osm /name=*y --verbose &> A2.log

A3) Does not work as expected. Finds too many. Expected instead only string that end with y2.
osmium tags-filter dummy.osm --output-format=osm /name=*y2 --verbose &> A3.log

A4) Works as expected. Only finds one.
osmium tags-filter dummy.osm --output-format=osm /name=*y3 --verbose &> A4.log

A5) Does not work as expected. Finds too many.
osmium tags-filter dummy.osm --output-format=osm /name=*u --verbose &> A5.log

B1) Works as expected. Finds nothing.
osmium tags-filter dummy.osm --output-format=osm /name=w* --verbose &> B1.log

B2) Works as expected. Finds strings that start with d.
osmium tags-filter dummy.osm --output-format=osm /name=d* --verbose &> B2.log

B3) Works as expected. Finds strings that start with 4.
osmium tags-filter dummy.osm --output-format=osm /name=4* --verbose &> B3.log

B4) Works as expected. Finds nothing.
osmium tags-filter dummy.osm --output-format=osm /name=u* --verbose &> B4.log

C1) Works as expected. Finds nothing.
osmium tags-filter dummy.osm --output-format=osm /name=w --verbose &> C1.log

C2) Works as expected. Find strings that contains u.
osmium tags-filter dummy.osm --output-format=osm /name=u --verbose &> C2.log

dummy.osm contains:
<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?> <osm version='0.6' generator='JOSM'> <node id='-25409' action='modify' visible='true' lat='55.73489716906' lon='9.13294583425'> <tag k='name' v='dummy' /> </node> <node id='-25410' action='modify' visible='true' lat='55.73474162384' lon='9.13318455085'> <tag k='name' v='dummy,dummy2' /> </node> <node id='-25411' action='modify' visible='true' lat='55.73483430867' lon='9.13305446472'> <tag k='name' v='dummy,dummy2,dummy3' /> </node> <node id='-25412' action='modify' visible='true' lat='55.73479372363' lon='9.13312956624'> <tag k='name' v='4dy' /> </node> </osm>

dummy.pdf

A1.log
A2.log
A3.log
A4.log
A5.log
B1.log
B2.log
B3.log
B4.log
C1.log
C2.log

[joto]

It works as documented in the man page. A leading * marks a substring match, not a suffix match. This might not be the most intuitive way for the matching to work, but it was intended.

[JitGub]

I would like to have the suffix match.
Or/And a way to to escape the special character “,”.

I have a challenge with this one (and others): way id='925886857'.
It has a “,” in the name.
tag k='name' v='Legoland, Lalandia'

I have therefore, among other things, divided the search into 2, before and after the comma.

But the second search also gives: way id='804813121'
tag k='name' v='Legoland / Lalandia (Billund)'

[joto]

Osmium is not the right tool for very specialized processing like this. Osmium is very fast, but that's because it is somewhat simplistic in what it can do. Have a look at PyOsmium and its filtering functionality.