(glob "/usr/man/man?/") ==> 
        ("/usr/man/man1/" "/usr/man/man2/" ...)

Globbing can sometimes be useful when we need a list of a directory's files where each element in the list includes the pathname for the file. Compare:


(directory-files "../include") ==> 
    ("cig.h" "decls.h" ...)

(glob "../include/*") ==> 
    ("../include/cig.h" "../include/decls.h" ...)

Returns a constant glob pattern that exactly matches str. All wild-card characters in str are quoted with a backslash.


(glob-quote "Any *.c files?")
    ==> "Any \*.c files\?"

Glob each pattern against the filesystem and return the sorted list. Duplicates are not removed. Patterns matching nothing are not included literally, as they are in the shell. Shell {a,b,c} patterns are expanded. Backslash quotes characters, turning off the special meaning of {, }, *, [, ], and ?.

Note that the rules of backslash for Scheme strings and glob patterns work together to require four backslashes in a row to specify a single literal backslash. Fortunately, it is very rare that a backslash occurs in a POSIX file name.

A glob subpattern will not match against dot files unless the first character of the subpattern is a literal ".". Further, a dot subpattern will not match the files . or .. unless it is a constant pattern, as in (glob "../*/*.c"). So a directory's dot files can be reliably generated with the simple glob pattern ".*".

Some examples:

(glob "*.c" "*.h")
    ;; All the C and #include files in my directory.

(glob "*.c" "*/*.c")
    ;; All the C files in this directory and
    ;; its immediate subdirectories.

(glob "lexer/*.c" "parser/*.c")
(glob "{lexer,parser}/*.c")
    ;; All the C files in the lexer and parser dirs.

(glob "\\{lexer,parser\\}/*.c")
    ;; All the C files in the strange
    ;; directory "{lexer,parser}".

(glob "*\\*")
    ;; All the files ending in "*", e.g.
    ;; ("foo*" "bar*")

(glob "*lexer*")
    ("mylexer.c" "lexer1.notes")
    ;; All files whose names contain the string "lexer".

(glob "lexer")
    ;; Either ("lexer") or ().

If the first character of the pattern (after expanding braces) is a slash, the search begins at root; otherwise, the search begins in the current working directory.

If the last character of the pattern (after expanding braces) is a slash, then the result matches must be directories, e.g.,