This command performs file name “globbing” in a fashion similar to the csh shell or bash shell. It
returns a list of the files whose names match any of the pattern arguments. No particular order is
guaranteed in the list, so if a sorted list is required the caller should use lsort.
OPTIONS
If the initial arguments to glob start with - then they are treated as switches. The following switches
are currently supported:
-directorydirectory
Search for files which match the given patterns starting in the given directory. This allows
searching of directories whose name contains glob-sensitive characters without the need to quote
such characters explicitly. This option may not be used in conjunction with -path, which is used
to allow searching for complete file paths whose names may contain glob-sensitive characters.
-join The remaining pattern arguments, after option processing, are treated as a single pattern obtained
by joining the arguments with directory separators.
-nocomplain
Allows an empty list to be returned without error; This is the default behavior in Tcl 9.0, so
this switch has no effect any more.
-pathpathPrefix
Search for files with the given pathPrefix where the rest of the name matches the given patterns.
This allows searching for files with names similar to a given file (as opposed to a directory)
even when the names contain glob-sensitive characters. This option may not be used in conjunction
with -directory. For example, to find all files with the same root name as $path, but differing
extensions, you should use “glob-path[filerootname$path].*” which will work even if $path
contains numerous glob-sensitive characters.
-tails Only return the part of each file found which follows the last directory named in any -directory
or -path path specification. Thus “glob-tails-directory$dir*” is equivalent to “setpwd[pwd];cd$dir;glob*;cd$pwd”. For -path specifications, the returned names will include the
last path segment, so “glob-tails-path[filerootname/home/fred/foo.tex].*” will return paths
like foo.auxfoo.bibfoo.tex etc.
-typestypeList
Only list files or directories which match typeList, where the items in the list have two forms.
The first form is like the -type option of the Unix find command: b (block special file), c
(character special file), d (directory), f (plain file), l (symbolic link), p (named pipe), or s
(socket), where multiple types may be specified in the list. Glob will return all files which
match at least one of the types given. Note that symbolic links will be returned both if -typesl
is given, or if the target of a link matches the requested type. So, a link to a directory will be
returned if -typesd was specified.
The second form specifies types where all the types given must match. These are r, w, x as file
permissions, and readonly, hidden as special permission cases. On the Macintosh, macOS types and
creators are also supported, where any item which is four characters long is assumed to be a macOS
type (e.g. TEXT). Items which are of the form {macintoshtypeXXXX} or {macintoshcreatorXXXX}
will match types or creators respectively. Unrecognized types, or specifications of multiple macOS
types/creators will signal an error.
The two forms may be mixed, so -types{dfrw} will find all regular files OR directories that
have both read AND write permissions. The following are equivalent:
glob-typed*glob*/
except that the first case doesn't return the trailing “/” and is more platform independent.
-- Marks the end of switches. The argument following this one will be treated as a pattern even if it
starts with a -.
GLOBBINGPATTERNS
The pattern arguments may contain any of the following special characters, which are a superset of those
supported by stringmatch:
? Matches any single character.
* Matches any sequence of zero or more characters.
[chars] Matches any single character in chars. If chars contains a sequence of the form a-b then any
character between a and b (inclusive) will match.
\x Matches the character x.
{a,b,...} Matches any of the sub-patterns a, b, etc.
On Unix, as with csh, a “.” at the beginning of a file's name or just after a “/” must be matched
explicitly or with a {} construct, unless the -typeshidden flag is given (since “.” at the beginning of
a file's name indicates that it is hidden). On other platforms, files beginning with a “.” are handled no
differently to any others, except the special directories “.” and “..” which must be matched explicitly
(this is to avoid a recursive pattern like “glob -join * * * *” from recursing up the directory hierarchy
as well as down). In addition, all “/” characters must be matched explicitly.
The glob command differs from csh globbing in two ways. First, it does not sort its result list (use the
lsort command if you want the list sorted). Second, glob only returns the names of files that actually
exist; in csh no check for existence is made unless a pattern contains a ?, *, or [] construct.