<!DOCTYPE html> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <head> <meta charset="utf-8" /> <title>glob — Unix style pathname pattern expansion — Python 3.7.4 documentation</title> <link rel="stylesheet" href="../_static/pydoctheme.css" type="text/css" /> <link rel="stylesheet" href="../_static/pygments.css" type="text/css" /> <script type="text/javascript" id="documentation_options" data-url_root="../" src="../_static/documentation_options.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="../_static/jquery.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="../_static/underscore.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="../_static/doctools.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="../_static/language_data.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="../_static/sidebar.js"></script> <link rel="search" type="application/opensearchdescription+xml" title="Search within Python 3.7.4 documentation" href="../_static/opensearch.xml"/> <link rel="author" title="About these documents" href="../about.html" /> <link rel="index" title="Index" href="../genindex.html" /> <link rel="search" title="Search" href="../search.html" /> <link rel="copyright" title="Copyright" href="../copyright.html" /> <link rel="next" title="fnmatch — Unix filename pattern matching" href="fnmatch.html" /> <link rel="prev" title="tempfile — Generate temporary files and directories" href="tempfile.html" /> <link rel="shortcut icon" type="image/png" href="../_static/py.png" /> <link rel="canonical" href="https://docs.python.org/3/library/glob.html" /> <script type="text/javascript" src="../_static/copybutton.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="../_static/switchers.js"></script> <style> @media only screen { table.full-width-table { width: 100%; } } </style> </head><body> <div class="related" role="navigation" aria-label="related navigation"> <h3>Navigation</h3> <ul> <li class="right" style="margin-right: 10px"> <a href="../genindex.html" title="General Index" accesskey="I">index</a></li> <li class="right" > <a href="../py-modindex.html" title="Python Module Index" >modules</a> |</li> <li class="right" > <a href="fnmatch.html" title="fnmatch — Unix filename pattern matching" accesskey="N">next</a> |</li> <li class="right" > <a href="tempfile.html" title="tempfile — Generate temporary files and directories" accesskey="P">previous</a> |</li> <li><img src="../_static/py.png" alt="" style="vertical-align: middle; margin-top: -1px"/></li> <li><a href="https://www.python.org/">Python</a> »</li> <li> <span class="language_switcher_placeholder">en</span> <span class="version_switcher_placeholder">3.7.4</span> <a href="../index.html">Documentation </a> » </li> <li class="nav-item nav-item-1"><a href="index.html" >The Python Standard Library</a> »</li> <li class="nav-item nav-item-2"><a href="filesys.html" accesskey="U">File and Directory Access</a> »</li> <li class="right"> <div class="inline-search" style="display: none" role="search"> <form class="inline-search" action="../search.html" method="get"> <input placeholder="Quick search" type="text" name="q" /> <input type="submit" value="Go" /> <input type="hidden" name="check_keywords" value="yes" /> <input type="hidden" name="area" value="default" /> </form> </div> <script type="text/javascript">$('.inline-search').show(0);</script> | </li> </ul> </div> <div class="document"> <div class="documentwrapper"> <div class="bodywrapper"> <div class="body" role="main"> <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="descclassname">glob.</code><code class="descname">glob</code><span class="sig-paren">(</span><em>pathname</em>, <em>*</em>, <em>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 and subdirectories. If the pattern is followed by an <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">os.sep</span></code>, only directories and subdirectories 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="descclassname">glob.</code><code class="descname">iglob</code><span class="sig-paren">(</span><em>pathname</em>, <em>*</em>, <em>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="descclassname">glob.</code><code class="descname">escape</code><span class="sig-paren">(</span><em>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> </dl> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="sphinxsidebar" role="navigation" aria-label="main navigation"> <div class="sphinxsidebarwrapper"> <h4>Previous topic</h4> <p class="topless"><a href="tempfile.html" title="previous chapter"><code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">tempfile</span></code> — Generate temporary files and directories</a></p> <h4>Next topic</h4> <p class="topless"><a href="fnmatch.html" title="next chapter"><code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">fnmatch</span></code> — Unix filename pattern matching</a></p> <div role="note" aria-label="source link"> <h3>This Page</h3> <ul class="this-page-menu"> <li><a href="../bugs.html">Report a Bug</a></li> <li> <a href="https://github.com/python/cpython/blob/3.7/Doc/library/glob.rst" rel="nofollow">Show Source </a> </li> </ul> </div> </div> </div> <div class="clearer"></div> </div> <div class="related" role="navigation" aria-label="related navigation"> <h3>Navigation</h3> <ul> <li class="right" style="margin-right: 10px"> <a href="../genindex.html" title="General Index" >index</a></li> <li class="right" > <a href="../py-modindex.html" title="Python Module Index" >modules</a> |</li> <li class="right" > <a href="fnmatch.html" title="fnmatch — Unix filename pattern matching" >next</a> |</li> <li class="right" > <a href="tempfile.html" title="tempfile — Generate temporary files and directories" >previous</a> |</li> <li><img src="../_static/py.png" alt="" style="vertical-align: middle; margin-top: -1px"/></li> <li><a href="https://www.python.org/">Python</a> »</li> <li> <span class="language_switcher_placeholder">en</span> <span class="version_switcher_placeholder">3.7.4</span> <a href="../index.html">Documentation </a> » </li> <li class="nav-item nav-item-1"><a href="index.html" >The Python Standard Library</a> »</li> <li class="nav-item nav-item-2"><a href="filesys.html" >File and Directory Access</a> »</li> <li class="right"> <div class="inline-search" style="display: none" role="search"> <form class="inline-search" action="../search.html" method="get"> <input placeholder="Quick search" type="text" name="q" /> <input type="submit" value="Go" /> <input type="hidden" name="check_keywords" value="yes" /> <input type="hidden" name="area" value="default" /> </form> </div> <script type="text/javascript">$('.inline-search').show(0);</script> | </li> </ul> </div> <div class="footer"> © <a href="../copyright.html">Copyright</a> 2001-2019, Python Software Foundation. <br /> The Python Software Foundation is a non-profit corporation. <a href="https://www.python.org/psf/donations/">Please donate.</a> <br /> Last updated on Jul 13, 2019. <a href="../bugs.html">Found a bug</a>? <br /> Created using <a href="http://sphinx.pocoo.org/">Sphinx</a> 2.0.1. </div> </body> </html>