Bash Pattern matching and regular expressions The ** glob
Example
4.0
Preparation
$ mkdir globbing
$ cd globbing
$ mkdir -p folder/{sub,another}folder/content/deepfolder/
touch macy stacy tracy "file with space" folder/{sub,another}folder/content/deepfolder/file .hiddenfile
$ shopt -u nullglob
$ shopt -u failglob
$ shopt -u dotglob
$ shopt -u nocaseglob
$ shopt -u extglob
$ shopt -s globstar
Bash is able to interpret two adjacent asterisks as a single glob. With the globstar
option activated this can be used to match folders that reside deeper in the directory structure
echo **
emptyfolder folder folder/anotherfolder folder/anotherfolder/content folder/anotherfolder/content/deepfolder folder/anotherfolder/content/deepfolder/file folder/subfolder folder/subfolder/content folder/subfolder/content/deepfolder folder/subfolder/content/deepfolder/file macy stacy tracy
The ** can be thought of a path expansion, no matter how deep the path is.
This example matches any file or folder that starts with deep, regardless of how
deep it is nested:
$ echo **/deep*
folder/anotherfolder/content/deepfolder folder/subfolder/content/deepfolder
