Recursive '**' matches non-existent directories.

[daniel]

BPO	35201
Nosy	@serhiy-storchaka

^{Note: these values reflect the state of the issue at the time it was migrated and might not reflect the current state.}

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GitHub fields:

assignee = None
closed_at = None
created_at = <Date 2018-11-09.16:54:51.725>
labels = ['type-bug', 'library', '3.9', '3.10', '3.11']
title = "Recursive '**' matches non-existent directories."
updated_at = <Date 2021-12-01.22:35:42.687>
user = 'https://bugs.python.org/daniel'

bugs.python.org fields:

activity = <Date 2021-12-01.22:35:42.687>
actor = 'iritkatriel'
assignee = 'none'
closed = False
closed_date = None
closer = None
components = ['Library (Lib)']
creation = <Date 2018-11-09.16:54:51.725>
creator = 'daniel'
dependencies = []
files = []
hgrepos = []
issue_num = 35201
keywords = []
message_count = 3.0
messages = ['329537', '329539', '329703']
nosy_count = 2.0
nosy_names = ['serhiy.storchaka', 'daniel']
pr_nums = []
priority = 'normal'
resolution = None
stage = None
status = 'open'
superseder = None
type = 'behavior'
url = 'https://bugs.python.org/issue35201'
versions = ['Python 3.9', 'Python 3.10', 'Python 3.11']

Linked PRs

• gh-79382: Fix recursive glob() with trailing "**" #115134
• [3.12] gh-79382: Fix recursive glob() with trailing "**" (GH-115134) #115290
• [3.11] gh-79382: Fix recursive glob() with trailing "**" (GH-115134) #115291

[daniel]

In the following case, when there is no file or directory 'a', glob will still return it:

>>> glob.glob("a/**", recursive=True)
[ 'a/' ]

Note that this is inconsistent with the '*' pattern:

>>> glob.glob("a/*", recursive=True)
[]

[serhiy-storchaka]

This is expected behavior, and it matches the behavior of Bash.

$ mkdir empty
$ shopt -s globstar failglob
$ echo empty/*
bash: no match: empty/*
$ echo empty/**
empty/

"**" matches zero or more path components. In this case case it matches zero.

[daniel]

In the Bash example, you created the directory empty/. This bug is specifically when the directory in question does not exist.

[LuckyDams]

Similar issue with existing file returned as directory:

$ touch file
$ shopt -s globstar failglob
$ echo file/*
-bash: no match: file/*
$ echo file/**
-bash: no match: file/**

>>> glob.glob('file/*', recursive=True)
[]

>>> glob.glob('file/**', recursive=True)
['file/']