CODEWITHSUNDEEP
pythonpython-3.x
K. Hess
K. Hess

Reputation: 15

Why is Glob module searching immediate subdirectories when recursive is false?

I have functions using glob to identify files for removal. In the first function, the recursive toggle works as intended. In the second function, the recursive toggle is somewhat working... Here's a sample of my code below.

for item in glob.glob(myfile_path + '/**', recursive=self.recrsv.get()):
    if item.endswith(".mesg"):
        os.remove(os.path.join(myfile_path, item))

This function works as intended.

for junk in glob.glob(myfile_path + '/**' + "/*.*[0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9]", recursive=self.recrsv.get()):
    os.remove(os.path.join(myfile_path, junk))

This function somewhat works. Whether recursive is set to True or False, it still goes into the first level of subdirectories and deletes files *.*[0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9] . It does not go into the second level of subdirectories unless recursive is set to True.

Note: Recursive is set to a tk.BooleanVar() named self.recrsv used in a Checkbutton in a tkinter widget.

Thank you in advance.

Upvotes: 0

Views: 206

Answers (3)

K. Hess
K. Hess

Reputation: 15

I've made a workaround for my issue using an if-statement and repeating the glob under it.

    for junk in glob.glob(myfile_path + "/*.*[0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9]"):
        os.remove(os.path.join(myfile_path, junk))

    #The above code will delete the specified junk file within myfile_path.

    if self.recrsv.get()==1:
        for junk in glob.glob(myfile_path + '/**' + "/*.*[0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9]",
                              recursive=self.recrsv.get()):
            os.remove(os.path.join(myfile_path, junk)

    #The above code checks the recursive variable, and if true, will recursively delete the junk files.

If I do not use the if-statement and simply rely on glob's own recursive check, the junk file will be removed from the first level of subdirectories even if recursive=False.

I can probably clean up the code some more to be a bit more if-statement-intuitive, but the problem has been solved. Thank you, @Szellem and @user2357112 for your efforts.

Upvotes: 0

Szellem
Szellem

Reputation: 514

https://docs.python.org/3/library/glob.html

"If recursive is true, the pattern “**” will match any files and zero or more directories and subdirectories. If the pattern is followed by an os.sep, only directories and subdirectories match."

So ** in <myfile_path>/**/*.*[0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9] matches exactly one level of subdirectories when recursive is set to false. Because / is os.sep I assume.

Upvotes: 1

user2357112
user2357112

Reputation: 281683

With recursive=False,

myfile_path + '/**' + "/*.*[0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9]"

is equivalent to

myfile_path + '/*' + "/*.*[0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9]"

or

myfile_path + '/*/*.*[0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9]"

However, even with recursive=False, this pattern explicitly says to search through subdirectories of myfile_path, not through the contents of myfile_path itself. A pattern saying to search through myfile_path would be

myfile_path + '/*.*[0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9]"

(Also, building a glob this way is dangerous, because myfile_path could contain glob metacharacters. Remember to use glob.escape on components you want to match literally, or pick a search mechanism that doesn't need escaping.)

Upvotes: 1

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