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<div class="section" id="module-glob">
<span id="glob-unix-style-pathname-pattern-expansion"></span><h1><a class="reference internal" href="#module-glob" title="glob: Unix shell style pathname pattern expansion."><code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">glob</span></code></a> — Unix style pathname pattern expansion<a class="headerlink" href="#module-glob" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h1>
<p><strong>Source code:</strong> <a class="reference external" href="https://github.com/python/cpython/tree/3.7/Lib/glob.py">Lib/glob.py</a></p>
<hr class="docutils" id="index-0" />
<p id="index-1">The <a class="reference internal" href="#module-glob" title="glob: Unix shell style pathname pattern expansion."><code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">glob</span></code></a> 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 <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">*</span></code>, <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">?</span></code>, and character
ranges expressed with <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">[]</span></code> will be correctly matched. This is done by using
the <a class="reference internal" href="os.html#os.scandir" title="os.scandir"><code class="xref py py-func docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">os.scandir()</span></code></a> and <a class="reference internal" href="fnmatch.html#fnmatch.fnmatch" title="fnmatch.fnmatch"><code class="xref py py-func docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">fnmatch.fnmatch()</span></code></a> functions in concert, and
not by actually invoking a subshell. Note that unlike <a class="reference internal" href="fnmatch.html#fnmatch.fnmatch" title="fnmatch.fnmatch"><code class="xref py py-func docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">fnmatch.fnmatch()</span></code></a>,
<a class="reference internal" href="#module-glob" title="glob: Unix shell style pathname pattern expansion."><code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">glob</span></code></a> treats filenames beginning with a dot (<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">.</span></code>) as special cases.
(For tilde and shell variable expansion, use <a class="reference internal" href="os.path.html#os.path.expanduser" title="os.path.expanduser"><code class="xref py py-func docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">os.path.expanduser()</span></code></a> and
<a class="reference internal" href="os.path.html#os.path.expandvars" title="os.path.expandvars"><code class="xref py py-func docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">os.path.expandvars()</span></code></a>.)</p>
<p>For a literal match, wrap the meta-characters in brackets.
For example, <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">'[?]'</span></code> matches the character <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">'?'</span></code>.</p>
<div class="admonition seealso">
<p class="admonition-title">See also</p>
<p>The <a class="reference internal" href="pathlib.html#module-pathlib" title="pathlib: Object-oriented filesystem paths"><code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">pathlib</span></code></a> module offers high-level path objects.</p>
</div>
<dl class="function">
<dt id="glob.glob">
<code class="sig-prename descclassname">glob.</code><code class="sig-name descname">glob</code><span class="sig-paren">(</span><em class="sig-param">pathname</em>, <em class="sig-param">*</em>, <em class="sig-param">recursive=False</em><span class="sig-paren">)</span><a class="headerlink" href="#glob.glob" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Return a possibly-empty list of path names that match <em>pathname</em>, which must be
a string containing a path specification. <em>pathname</em> can be either absolute
(like <code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">/usr/src/Python-1.5/Makefile</span></code>) or relative (like
<code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">../../Tools/*/*.gif</span></code>), and can contain shell-style wildcards. Broken
symlinks are included in the results (as in the shell).</p>
<p id="index-2">If <em>recursive</em> is true, the pattern “<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">**</span></code>” will match any files and zero or
more directories, subdirectories and symbolic links to directories. If the
pattern is followed by an <a class="reference internal" href="os.html#os.sep" title="os.sep"><code class="xref py py-data docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">os.sep</span></code></a> or <a class="reference internal" href="os.html#os.altsep" title="os.altsep"><code class="xref py py-data docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">os.altsep</span></code></a> then files will not
match.</p>
<div class="admonition note">
<p class="admonition-title">Note</p>
<p>Using the “<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">**</span></code>” pattern in large directory trees may consume
an inordinate amount of time.</p>
</div>
<div class="versionchanged">
<p><span class="versionmodified changed">Changed in version 3.5: </span>Support for recursive globs using “<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">**</span></code>”.</p>
</div>
</dd></dl>
<dl class="function">
<dt id="glob.iglob">
<code class="sig-prename descclassname">glob.</code><code class="sig-name descname">iglob</code><span class="sig-paren">(</span><em class="sig-param">pathname</em>, <em class="sig-param">*</em>, <em class="sig-param">recursive=False</em><span class="sig-paren">)</span><a class="headerlink" href="#glob.iglob" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Return an <a class="reference internal" href="../glossary.html#term-iterator"><span class="xref std std-term">iterator</span></a> which yields the same values as <a class="reference internal" href="#module-glob" title="glob: Unix shell style pathname pattern expansion."><code class="xref py py-func docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">glob()</span></code></a>
without actually storing them all simultaneously.</p>
</dd></dl>
<dl class="function">
<dt id="glob.escape">
<code class="sig-prename descclassname">glob.</code><code class="sig-name descname">escape</code><span class="sig-paren">(</span><em class="sig-param">pathname</em><span class="sig-paren">)</span><a class="headerlink" href="#glob.escape" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Escape all special characters (<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">'?'</span></code>, <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">'*'</span></code> and <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">'['</span></code>).
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
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">escape('//?/c:/Quo</span> <span class="pre">vadis?.txt')</span></code> returns <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">'//?/c:/Quo</span> <span class="pre">vadis[?].txt'</span></code>.</p>
<div class="versionadded">
<p><span class="versionmodified added">New in version 3.4.</span></p>
</div>
</dd></dl>
<p>For example, consider a directory containing the following files:
<code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">1.gif</span></code>, <code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">2.txt</span></code>, <code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">card.gif</span></code> and a subdirectory <code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">sub</span></code>
which contains only the file <code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">3.txt</span></code>. <a class="reference internal" href="#module-glob" title="glob: Unix shell style pathname pattern expansion."><code class="xref py py-func docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">glob()</span></code></a> will produce
the following results. Notice how any leading components of the path are
preserved.</p>
<div class="highlight-python3 notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="kn">import</span> <span class="nn">glob</span>
<span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">glob</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">glob</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">'./[0-9].*'</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="go">['./1.gif', './2.txt']</span>
<span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">glob</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">glob</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">'*.gif'</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="go">['1.gif', 'card.gif']</span>
<span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">glob</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">glob</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">'?.gif'</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="go">['1.gif']</span>
<span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">glob</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">glob</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">'**/*.txt'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">recursive</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="kc">True</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="go">['2.txt', 'sub/3.txt']</span>
<span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">glob</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">glob</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">'./**/'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">recursive</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="kc">True</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="go">['./', './sub/']</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>If the directory contains files starting with <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">.</span></code> they won’t be matched by
default. For example, consider a directory containing <code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">card.gif</span></code> and
<code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">.card.gif</span></code>:</p>
<div class="highlight-python3 notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="kn">import</span> <span class="nn">glob</span>
<span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">glob</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">glob</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">'*.gif'</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="go">['card.gif']</span>
<span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">glob</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">glob</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">'.c*'</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="go">['.card.gif']</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<div class="admonition seealso">
<p class="admonition-title">See also</p>
<dl class="simple">
<dt>Module <a class="reference internal" href="fnmatch.html#module-fnmatch" title="fnmatch: Unix shell style filename pattern matching."><code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">fnmatch</span></code></a></dt><dd><p>Shell-style filename (not path) expansion</p>
</dd>
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