: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 all the pathnames matching a specified pattern according to the rules used by the Unix shell, although results are returned in arbitrary order. 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 that unlike :func:fnmatch.fnmatch, :mod:glob treats filenames beginning with a dot (.) as special cases. (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 '?'.

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

.. function:: glob(pathname, *, recursive=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).

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

If recursive is true, the pattern "**" will match any files and zero or more directories and subdirectories. If the pattern is followed by an os.sep, only directories and subdirectories match.

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

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

.. function:: iglob(pathname, *, recursive=False)

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

.. 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

For example, 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::

Module :mod:fnmatch Shell-style filename (not path) expansion