:mod:!glob --- Unix style pathname pattern expansion

.. module:: glob :synopsis: Unix shell style pathname pattern expansion.

Source code: :source:Lib/glob.py

.. index:: single: filenames; pathname expansion

.. index:: single: * (asterisk); in glob-style wildcards single: ? (question mark); in glob-style wildcards single: [] (square brackets); in glob-style wildcards single: ! (exclamation); in glob-style wildcards single: - (minus); in glob-style wildcards single: . (dot); in glob-style wildcards

The :mod:!glob module finds pathnames using pattern matching rules similar to the Unix shell. No tilde expansion is done, but *, ?, and character ranges expressed with [] will be correctly matched. This is done by using the :func:os.scandir and :func:fnmatch.fnmatch functions in concert, and not by actually invoking a subshell.

.. note:: The pathnames are returned in no particular order. If you need a specific order, sort the results.

Files beginning with a dot (.) can only be matched by patterns that also start with a dot, unlike :func:fnmatch.fnmatch or :func:pathlib.Path.glob. For tilde and shell variable expansion, use :func:os.path.expanduser and :func:os.path.expandvars.

For a literal match, wrap the meta-characters in brackets. For example, '[?]' matches the character '?'.

The :mod:!glob module defines the following functions:

.. function:: glob(pathname, *, root_dir=None, dir_fd=None, recursive=False,
include_hidden=False)

Return a possibly empty list of path names that match pathname, which must be a string containing a path specification. pathname can be either absolute (like :file:/usr/src/Python-1.5/Makefile) or relative (like :file:../../Tools/\*/\*.gif), and can contain shell-style wildcards. Broken symlinks are included in the results (as in the shell). Whether or not the results are sorted depends on the file system. If a file that satisfies conditions is removed or added during the call of this function, whether a path name for that file will be included is unspecified.

If root_dir is not None, it should be a :term:path-like object specifying the root directory for searching. It has the same effect on :func:!glob as changing the current directory before calling it. If pathname is relative, the result will contain paths relative to root_dir.

This function can support :ref:paths relative to directory descriptors <dir_fd> with the dir_fd parameter.

.. index:: single: **; in glob-style wildcards

If recursive is true, the pattern "**" will match any files and zero or more directories, subdirectories and symbolic links to directories. If the pattern is followed by an :data:os.sep or :data:os.altsep then files will not match.

If include_hidden is true, "**" pattern will match hidden directories.

.. audit-event:: glob.glob pathname,recursive glob.glob .. audit-event:: glob.glob/2 pathname,recursive,root_dir,dir_fd glob.glob

.. note:: Using the "**" pattern in large directory trees may consume an inordinate amount of time.

.. note:: This function may return duplicate path names if pathname contains multiple "**" patterns and recursive is true.

.. versionchanged:: 3.5 Support for recursive globs using "**".

.. versionchanged:: 3.10 Added the root_dir and dir_fd parameters.

.. versionchanged:: 3.11 Added the include_hidden parameter.

.. function:: iglob(pathname, *, root_dir=None, dir_fd=None, recursive=False,
include_hidden=False)

Return an :term:iterator which yields the same values as :func:glob without actually storing them all simultaneously.

.. audit-event:: glob.glob pathname,recursive glob.iglob .. audit-event:: glob.glob/2 pathname,recursive,root_dir,dir_fd glob.iglob

.. note:: This function may return duplicate path names if pathname contains multiple "**" patterns and recursive is true.

.. versionchanged:: 3.5 Support for recursive globs using "**".

.. versionchanged:: 3.10 Added the root_dir and dir_fd parameters.

.. versionchanged:: 3.11 Added the include_hidden parameter.

.. function:: escape(pathname)

Escape all special characters ('?', '*' and '['). This is useful if you want to match an arbitrary literal string that may have special characters in it. Special characters in drive/UNC sharepoints are not escaped, e.g. on Windows escape('//?/c:/Quo vadis?.txt') returns '//?/c:/Quo vadis[?].txt'.

.. versionadded:: 3.4

.. function:: translate(pathname, *, recursive=False, include_hidden=False, seps=None)

Convert the given path specification to a regular expression for use with :func:re.match. The path specification can contain shell-style wildcards.

For example:

  >>> import glob, re
  >>>
  >>> regex = glob.translate('**/*.txt', recursive=True, include_hidden=True)
  >>> regex
  '(?s:(?:.+/)?[^/]*\\.txt)\\z'
  >>> reobj = re.compile(regex)
  >>> reobj.match('foo/bar/baz.txt')
  <re.Match object; span=(0, 15), match='foo/bar/baz.txt'>

Path separators and segments are meaningful to this function, unlike :func:fnmatch.translate. By default wildcards do not match path separators, and * pattern segments match precisely one path segment.

If recursive is true, the pattern segment "**" will match any number of path segments.

If include_hidden is true, wildcards can match path segments that start with a dot (.).

A sequence of path separators may be supplied to the seps argument. If not given, :data:os.sep and :data:~os.altsep (if available) are used.

.. seealso::

 :meth:`pathlib.PurePath.full_match` and :meth:`pathlib.Path.glob`
 methods, which call this function to implement pattern matching and
 globbing.

.. versionadded:: 3.13

Examples

Consider a directory containing the following files: :file:1.gif, :file:2.txt, :file:card.gif and a subdirectory :file:sub which contains only the file :file:3.txt. :func:glob will produce the following results. Notice how any leading components of the path are preserved. ::

import glob glob.glob('./[0-9].') ['./1.gif', './2.txt'] glob.glob('.gif') ['1.gif', 'card.gif'] glob.glob('?.gif') ['1.gif'] glob.glob('/*.txt', recursive=True) ['2.txt', 'sub/3.txt'] glob.glob('.//', recursive=True) ['./', './sub/']

If the directory contains files starting with . they won't be matched by default. For example, consider a directory containing :file:card.gif and :file:.card.gif::

import glob glob.glob('.gif') ['card.gif'] glob.glob('.c') ['.card.gif']

.. seealso:: The :mod:fnmatch module offers shell-style filename (not path) expansion.

.. seealso:: The :mod:pathlib module offers high-level path objects.