15 Globbing

▼ |  | File: Racket File and Format Libraries

1 | Convertible: Data-Conversion Protocol
2 | gzip Compression and File Creation
3 | gzip Decompression
4 | zip File Creation
5 | zip File Extraction
6 | tar File Creation
7 | tar File Extraction
8 | tar+gzip File Extraction
9 | MD5 Message Digest
10 | SHA1 Message Digest
11 | GIF File Writing
12 | ICO File Reading and Writing
13 | Windows Registry
14 | Caching
15 | Globbing
| Bibliography
| Index

On this page:

glob/ c
glob
in-glob
glob-match?
glob-quote
glob-capture-dotfiles?

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## 15 Globbing🔗ℹ

(require file/glob) | package: base

The file/glob library implements globbing for path-string? values. A glob is a path string that matches a set of path strings using the following wildcards:

- A sextile (*) matches any sequence of characters in a file or directory name.

- Two sextiles (**) match any sequence of characters and any number of path separators.

- A question mark (?) matches any single character in a file or directory name.

- Square bracket-delimited character groups, e.g. [abc], match any character within the group. The square brackets have the same meaning in globs as in regular expressions, see Regexp Syntax.

- If the glob ends with a path separator (/ on any (system-type), additionally \ on 'windows) then it only matches directories.

> > > On Windows, wildcards cannot be escaped because \ is a path separator.

By default, wildcards will not match files or directories whose name begins with a period (aka "dotfiles"). To override, set the parameter glob-capture-dotfiles? to a non-#f value or supply a similar value using the #:capture-dotfiles? keyword.

> value glob/c : (or/c path-string? (sequence/c path-string?))

A flat contract that accepts a glob or a sequence of globs.

All file/glob functions accept glob/c values. These functions also recognize braces ({}) as a meta-wildcard for describing multiple globs.

> > > Braces are interpreted before any other wildcards.

- Brace-delimited, comma-separated character groups, e.g. {foo,bar}, expand to multiple globs before the file/glob module begins matching. For example, the glob/c value "{foo,bar}.rkt" has the same meaning as '("foo.rkt" "bar.rkt").

> > procedure
> > (glob |  | pattern |  |  |  |
> > | [ | #:capture-dotfiles? capture-dotfiles?]) |  | → |  | (listof path?)
> pattern : glob/c
> capture-dotfiles? : boolean? = (glob-capture-dotfiles?)

Builds a list of all paths on the current filesystem that match any glob in pattern. The order of paths in the result is unspecified.

If pattern contains the wildcard **, then glob recursively searches the filesystem to find matches. For example, the glob "/**.rkt" will search the entire filesystem for files or directories with a ".rkt" suffix (aka, Racket files).

Examples:

> > (glob "*.rkt")
> ;; Lists all Racket files in current directory
> > (glob "*/*.rkt")
> ;; Lists all Racket files in all sub-directories of the current directory.
> ;; (Does not search sub-sub-directories, etc.)
> > (glob (build-path (find-system-path 'home-dir) "**" "*.rkt"))
> ;; Recursively searches home directory for Racket files, lists all matches.
> > (glob "??.rkt")
> ;; Lists all Racket files in current directory with 2-character names.
> > (glob "[a-z0-9].rkt")
> ;; Lists all Racket files in current directory with single-character,
> ;; alphanumeric names.
> > (glob '("foo-bar.rkt" "foo-baz.rkt" "qux-bar.rkt" "qux-baz.rkt"))
> ;; Filters the list to contain only files or directories that exist.
> > (glob "{foo,qux}-{bar,baz}.rkt")
> ;; Same as above, returns at most 4 files.

> > procedure
> > (in-glob |  | pattern |
> > | [ | #:capture-dotfiles? capture-dotfiles?]) |
> → (sequence/c path?)
> pattern : glob/c
> capture-dotfiles? : boolean? = (glob-capture-dotfiles?)

Returns a stream of all paths matching the glob pattern, instead of eagerly building a list.

> > procedure
> > (glob-match? |  | pattern |  |  |  |
> > |  | path |  |  |  |
> > | [ | #:capture-dotfiles? capture-dotfiles?]) |  | → |  | boolean?
> pattern : glob/c
> path : path-string?
> capture-dotfiles? : boolean? = (glob-capture-dotfiles?)

Analogous to regexp-match?; returns #true if path matches any glob in pattern.

(glob-match? pattern path) is not the same as:

> (member path (glob pattern))

because glob only returns files/directories that exist, whereas glob-match? does not check that path exists.

This operation accesses the filesystem.

> procedure (glob-quote str) → string?
> str : string?
> (glob-quote path) → path?
> path : path?

Escapes all glob wildcards and glob meta-wildcards in the given string or path string.

Examples:

> > (glob-quote "*.rkt")
> "\\*.rkt"
> > (glob-quote "[Ff]ile?{zip,tar.gz}")
> "\\[Ff\\]ile\\?\\{zip\\,tar.gz\\}"
> > (glob-quote "]")
> "\\]"

> parameter (glob-capture-dotfiles?) → boolean?
> (glob-capture-dotfiles? capture-dotfiles?) → void?
> capture-dotfiles? : boolean?
> = | #f

Determines whether wildcards match names that begin with a #\. character. If #t, the wildcards will match dotfiles. If #f, use a glob such as ".*" to match dotfiles explicitly.
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