Globbing

In computer programming, the verb glob or globbing is used to refer to an instance of pattern matching behavior. The noun glob is sometimes used to refer to a particular pattern, e.g. "use the glob *.log to match all those log files".

Examples

bash$ ls -l
total 2
-rw-rw-r--    1 bozo  bozo         0 Aug  6 18:42 a.1
-rw-rw-r--    1 bozo  bozo         0 Aug  6 18:42 b.1
-rw-rw-r--    1 bozo  bozo         0 Aug  6 18:42 c.1
-rw-rw-r--    1 bozo  bozo       466 Aug  6 17:48 t2.sh
-rw-rw-r--    1 bozo  bozo       758 Jul 30 09:02 test1.txt

bash$ ls -l t?.sh
-rw-rw-r--    1 bozo  bozo       466 Aug  6 17:48 t2.sh

bash$ ls -l [ab]*
-rw-rw-r--    1 bozo  bozo         0 Aug  6 18:42 a.1
-rw-rw-r--    1 bozo  bozo         0 Aug  6 18:42 b.1

bash$ ls -l [a-c]*
-rw-rw-r--    1 bozo  bozo         0 Aug  6 18:42 a.1
-rw-rw-r--    1 bozo  bozo         0 Aug  6 18:42 b.1
-rw-rw-r--    1 bozo  bozo         0 Aug  6 18:42 c.1

bash$ ls -l [^ab]*
-rw-rw-r--    1 bozo  bozo         0 Aug  6 18:42 c.1
-rw-rw-r--    1 bozo  bozo       466 Aug  6 17:48 t2.sh
-rw-rw-r--    1 bozo  bozo       758 Jul 30 09:02 test1.txt

bash$ ls -l {b*,c*,*est*}
-rw-rw-r--    1 bozo  bozo         0 Aug  6 18:42 b.1
-rw-rw-r--    1 bozo  bozo         0 Aug  6 18:42 c.1
-rw-rw-r--    1 bozo  bozo       758 Jul 30 09:02 test1.txt


bash$ echo *
a.1 b.1 c.1 t2.sh test1.txt

bash$ echo t*
t2.sh test1.txt

Notes

Filename expansion can match dotfiles, but only if the pattern explicitly includes the dot.

  1 ~/[.]bashrc    # Will not expand to ~/.bashrc
  2 ~/?bashrc      # Neither will this.
  3                # Wild cards and metacharacters will not expand to a dot in globbing.
  4 
  5 ~/.[b]ashrc    # Will expand to ~./bashrc
  6 ~/.ba?hrc      # Likewise.
  7 ~/.bashr*      # Likewise.
  8 
  9 # Setting the "dotglob" option turns this off.
 10 
 11 # Thanks, S.C.

External links

• Advanced Bash-Scripting Guide: Globbing