Doc/libglob.tex

   1 \section{Standard Module \module{glob}}
   2 \label{module-glob}
   3 \stmodindex{glob}
   4
   5 The \module{glob} module finds all the pathnames matching a specified
   6 pattern according to the rules used by the \UNIX{} shell.  No tilde
   7 expansion is done, but \code{*}, \code{?}, and character ranges
   8 expressed with \code{[]} will be correctly matched.  This is done by
   9 using the \function{os.listdir()} and \function{fnmatch.fnmatch()}
  10 functions in concert, and not by actually invoking a subshell.  (For
  11 tilde and shell variable expansion, use \function{os.path.expanduser()}
  12 and \function{os.path.expandvars()}.)
  13
  14 \begin{funcdesc}{glob}{pathname}
  15 Returns a possibly-empty list of path names that match \var{pathname},
  16 which must be a string containing a path specification.
  17 \var{pathname} can be either absolute (like
  18 \file{/usr/src/Python-1.5/Makefile}) or relative (like
  19 \file{../../Tools/*.gif}), and can contain shell-style wildcards.
  20 \end{funcdesc}
  21
  22 For example, consider a directory containing only the following files:
  23 \file{1.gif}, \file{2.txt}, and \file{card.gif}.  \function{glob()}
  24 will produce the following results.  Notice how any leading components
  25 of the path are preserved.
  26
  27 \begin{verbatim}
  28 >>> import glob
  29 >>> glob.glob('./[0-9].*')
  30 ['./1.gif', './2.txt']
  31 >>> glob.glob('*.gif')
  32 ['1.gif', 'card.gif']
  33 >>> glob.glob('?.gif')
  34 ['1.gif']
  35 \end{verbatim}