# 6.8 `glob` -- Unix style pathname pattern expansion

The `glob` module finds all the pathnames matching a specified pattern according to the rules used by the Unix shell. No tilde expansion is done, but `*`, `?`, and character ranges expressed with `[]` will be correctly matched. This is done by using the `os.listdir()` and `fnmatch.fnmatch()` functions in concert, and not by actually invoking a subshell. (For tilde and shell variable expansion, use `os.path.expanduser()` and `os.path.expandvars()`.)

`glob` (pathname)
  Returns 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 "`/usr/src/Python-1.5/Makefile`") or relative (like "`../../Tools/*/*.gif`"), and can contain shell-style wildcards.

For example, consider a directory containing only the following files: "`1.gif`", "`2.txt`", and "`card.gif`". `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']

See Also:

Module `fnmatch` (Shell-style filename (not path) expansion)