glob — Unix style pathname pattern expansion¶
Source code:Lib/glob.py
Theglob module finds pathnamesusing pattern matching rules similar to the Unix shell.No tilde expansion is done, but*,?, and characterranges expressed with[] will be correctly matched. This is done by usingtheos.scandir() andfnmatch.fnmatch() functions in concert, andnot by actually invoking a subshell.
Note
The pathnames are returned in no particular order. If you need a specificorder, sort the results.
Files beginning with a dot (.) can only be matched bypatterns that also start with a dot,unlikefnmatch.fnmatch() orpathlib.Path.glob().For tilde and shell variable expansion, useos.path.expanduser() andos.path.expandvars().
For a literal match, wrap the meta-characters in brackets.For example,'[?]' matches the character'?'.
Theglob module defines the following functions:
- glob.glob(pathname,*,root_dir=None,dir_fd=None,recursive=False,include_hidden=False)¶
Return a possibly empty list of path names that matchpathname, which must bea string containing a path specification.pathname can be either absolute(like
/usr/src/Python-1.5/Makefile) or relative (like../../Tools/*/*.gif), and can contain shell-style wildcards. Brokensymlinks are included in the results (as in the shell). Whether or not theresults are sorted depends on the file system. If a file that satisfiesconditions is removed or added during the call of this function, whethera path name for that file will be included is unspecified.Ifroot_dir is not
None, it should be apath-like objectspecifying the root directory for searching. It has the same effect onglob()as changing the current directory before calling it. Ifpathname is relative, the result will contain paths relative toroot_dir.This function can supportpaths relative to directory descriptors with thedir_fd parameter.
Ifrecursive is true, the pattern “
**” will match any files and zero ormore directories, subdirectories and symbolic links to directories. If thepattern is followed by anos.seporos.altsepthen files will notmatch.Ifinclude_hidden is true, “
**” pattern will match hidden directories.Raises anauditing event
glob.globwith argumentspathname,recursive.Raises anauditing event
glob.glob/2with argumentspathname,recursive,root_dir,dir_fd.Note
Using the “
**” pattern in large directory trees may consumean inordinate amount of time.Note
This function may return duplicate path names ifpathnamecontains multiple “
**” patterns andrecursive is true.Changed in version 3.5:Support for recursive globs using “
**”.Changed in version 3.10:Added theroot_dir anddir_fd parameters.
Changed in version 3.11:Added theinclude_hidden parameter.
- glob.iglob(pathname,*,root_dir=None,dir_fd=None,recursive=False,include_hidden=False)¶
Return aniterator which yields the same values as
glob()without actually storing them all simultaneously.Raises anauditing event
glob.globwith argumentspathname,recursive.Raises anauditing event
glob.glob/2with argumentspathname,recursive,root_dir,dir_fd.Note
This function may return duplicate path names ifpathnamecontains multiple “
**” patterns andrecursive is true.Changed in version 3.5:Support for recursive globs using “
**”.Changed in version 3.10:Added theroot_dir anddir_fd parameters.
Changed in version 3.11:Added theinclude_hidden parameter.
- glob.escape(pathname)¶
Escape all special characters (
'?','*'and'[').This is useful if you want to match an arbitrary literal string that mayhave special characters in it. Special characters in drive/UNCsharepoints are not escaped, e.g. on Windowsescape('//?/c:/Quovadis?.txt')returns'//?/c:/Quovadis[?].txt'.Added in version 3.4.
- glob.translate(pathname,*,recursive=False,include_hidden=False,seps=None)¶
Convert the given path specification to a regular expression for use with
re.match(). The path specification can contain shell-style wildcards.For example:
>>>importglob,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
fnmatch.translate(). By default wildcards do not match pathseparators, and*pattern segments match precisely one path segment.Ifrecursive is true, the pattern segment “
**” will match any numberof path segments.Ifinclude_hidden is true, wildcards can match path segments that startwith a dot (
.).A sequence of path separators may be supplied to theseps argument. Ifnot given,
os.sepandaltsep(if available) are used.See also
pathlib.PurePath.full_match()andpathlib.Path.glob()methods, which call this function to implement pattern matching andglobbing.Added in version 3.13.
Examples¶
Consider a directory containing the following files:1.gif,2.txt,card.gif and a subdirectorysubwhich contains only the file3.txt.glob() will producethe following results. Notice how any leading components of the path arepreserved.
>>>importglob>>>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 bydefault. For example, consider a directory containingcard.gif and.card.gif:
>>>importglob>>>glob.glob('*.gif')['card.gif']>>>glob.glob('.c*')['.card.gif']
See also
Thefnmatch module offers shell-style filename (not path) expansion.
See also
Thepathlib module offers high-level path objects.