Extended globbing

luish can expand filename patterns as zsh does: **/ matches any number of directories, and a glob qualifier in parentheses after a pattern selects files by type, size, age and more, and can sort and change the result. Options also decide what a pattern that matches nothing gives, and whether patterns match hidden files (see below). All are off by default, so that scripts behave as in other POSIX shells. Turn the first two on with:

setopt glob.star glob.bare_qualifiers

For example:

ls **/*.md              # Markdown files in this directory and below
ls -d *(/)              # directories
ls *(.)                 # regular files
rm **/*.orig(.N)        # no error if there are none
vi *(.om[0])            # the most recently modified file
du -sh **/*(.Lm+100)    # files over 100 MiB

Recursive globbing (glob.star)

With setopt glob.star, a path component that is exactly ** and is followed by / matches zero or more directories. **/*.md matches x.md, a/y.md and a/b/z.md; a/**/ lists a/ and every directory below it.

• Hidden directories (whose name starts with .) are not entered, unless the D qualifier is given. Symbolic links to directories are not followed. ***/ follows them, and stops at a link to a directory it is already in.

• ** anywhere else (as the last component, or next to other characters, as in a**) is the same as *.

• A quoted ** is not special.

• Without the option, ** is the same as *, as in other POSIX shells.

As in zsh, the matches are sorted as full paths, so a.md comes before a/b.md.

Glob qualifiers (glob.bare_qualifiers)

With setopt glob.bare_qualifiers, parentheses at the end of a word hold a list of qualifiers: *(/), **/*.c(.om). The parentheses must be the last thing in the word and contain no blanks, quotes or $. A word with a qualifier is a pattern even if it has no *, ? or [, so file(N) expands to file if it exists and to nothing otherwise. Function definitions such as f() and f( ) are not affected.

As in zsh’s sh emulation, a qualifier can also come from an unquoted expansion: with p='*(/)', echo $p lists the directories. Quote the expansion ("$p") to keep the text as it is.

Qualifiers that test files select the matches that pass every test. , separates alternatives: *(/,@) selects directories and symbolic links.

Qualifier	Selects
/	directories
.	regular files
@	symbolic links
=	sockets
p	named pipes (FIFOs)
*	executable regular files
%, %b, %c	device files, block devices, character devices
r, w, x	readable, writable, executable by the owner
A, I, E	readable, writable, executable by the group
R, W, X	readable, writable, executable by others
s, S, t	setuid, setgid, sticky
U, G	owned by the effective user, group
uid, gid	owned by the user or group id: a number, or a name between delimiters, as in u:root:
ddev	on device number dev
l[-|+]n	with fewer than, more than or exactly n hard links
L[unit][-|+]n	with a size less than, more than or equal to n units, rounded up. The unit is bytes, or p (512 bytes), k, m, g or t
a, m, c [unit][-|+]n	accessed, modified or changed less than, more than or exactly n units ago. The unit is days, or s, m, h, d, w (weeks) or M (30 days)

^ negates the tests after it, and - makes the tests after it look at the target of a symbolic link rather than the link: *(-/) also selects links to directories, and *(-@) selects broken links.

Other qualifiers change the result:

Qualifier	Effect
N	if nothing matches, the word is removed (otherwise it is left as it is)
D	patterns match names starting with . (but never . and ..), and **/ enters hidden directories
n	names that contain numbers sort numerically (f9 before f10)
okey, Okey	sort in ascending or descending order: by name (n), size (L), number of links (l), time of access, modification or change (a, m, c, newest first), depth (d, files in subdirectories first) or not at all (N). Several keys can be given
[n], [n,m]	only the n-th match, or the n-th to the m-th, after sorting. They count from 0, and negative numbers count from the end (-1 is the last)
M	add / after directories
T	add a character after each name for its type, as ls -F: / directory, @ symbolic link, * executable, | named pipe, = socket, # block device, % character device, and a space for other files
:h, :t, :r, :e, :a, :A, :u, :l	modifiers, at the end of the list: remove the last path component (head; :hN keeps the first N), keep only it (tail; :tN the last N), remove the extension (root), keep only the extension, make the path absolute (also resolving symbolic links with :A), convert to upper or lower case. They are those of parameter expansion

A bad qualifier is an error, with status 1, as in zsh: *(Z) gives *(Z): bad glob qualifier: unknown file attribute: Z. As in zsh with globsubst, the qualifier may come from an expansion, so echo $PS1 fails if PS1 ends in %(...); quote the expansion (echo "$PS1") to keep it literal.

Patterns that match nothing, and hidden files

In POSIX shells, a pattern that matches no file is left as it is: echo *.txt prints *.txt. Three options change this, as zsh’s options of the same names (and bash’s) do:

glob.null (zsh’s NULL_GLOB, bash’s nullglob)

The pattern is removed: for f in *.txt doesn’t run its body when there are none, and set -- *.txt sets $# to 0. The N qualifier does this for one pattern.

glob.fail (zsh’s NOMATCH, bash’s failglob)

The pattern is an error (no matches found, status 1), so the command doesn’t run. As for other expansion errors, a script (or a subshell) exits; an interactive shell goes back to the prompt.

glob.fail_all (zsh’s CSH_NULL_GLOB)

The pattern is removed, as with glob.null, unless none of the patterns of the command (or of the words of for or of an array) matches: then it is an error, as with glob.fail. So rm *.o *.a removes whichever there are, and fails only if there are neither.

If more than one is on, glob.null wins, then glob.fail_all, as in zsh (in bash, failglob wins over nullglob). They apply where patterns are expanded: the words of commands and for, and the elements of arrays. A quoted pattern is not a pattern, and assignments, case, [[ ... ]] and redirections don’t expand patterns. With a qualifier, a pattern that matches nothing is as one without, unless the qualifier has N.

glob.dots (zsh’s GLOB_DOTS, bash’s dotglob) makes patterns match names starting with . (but never . and ..), as the D qualifier does: * lists hidden files too, and **/ enters hidden directories. A pattern that starts with . matches them anyway, and .* also matches . and .., as in dash (not in zsh, nor in bash 5.2).

Differences from zsh

• **/ needs setopt glob.star, and qualifiers need setopt glob.bare_qualifiers (zsh’s bareglobqual; zsh has **/ on by default, and qualifiers on outside its sh emulation).

• If nothing matches, the pattern is left as it is by default, as with setopt nonomatch in zsh (and in other POSIX shells); setopt glob.fail is zsh’s default.

• With glob.fail or glob.fail_all, a pattern that matches nothing in eval exits a script, as other expansion errors do (as in dash); in zsh, eval returns 1.

• Subscripts count from 0, as in zsh’s sh emulation (which sets KSH_ARRAYS); in its native mode they count from 1.

• Not supported yet: the e, +, f, F, Y and P qualifiers, (#q...), modifiers other than those above, and the extended patterns of zsh’s EXTENDED_GLOB (^, ~, #). Unknown sort keys and modifiers are errors (zsh ignores some of them).

• Files that sort the same (with o or O) stay in name order; in zsh their order is unspecified.