Python glob exclude files

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The glob module in Python allows you to retrieve files or directories that match a specific pattern. If you want to exclude certain files or directories from your search, you can use the glob function’s exclusion patterns.

Examples:

    
      import glob
  
      # Retrieve all files excluding ".txt" files in the current directory
      files = glob.glob('*.[!t][!x][!t]')
      print(files)
      
      # Retrieve all directories excluding "test_" prefixed directories
      directories = glob.glob('[!t][!e][!s][!t]_*')
      print(directories)

In the examples above, we are using the glob.glob function to search for files and directories based on exclusion patterns:

  • The first example retrieves all files excluding those with a .txt extension. The exclusion pattern *.[!t][!x][!t] matches any file name that does not end with .txt.
  • The second example retrieves all directories excluding those that start with test_. The exclusion pattern [!t][!e][!s][!t]_* matches any directory name that does not start with test_.

It’s important to note that the exclusion patterns use square brackets. Each character inside the brackets represents a potential match for that position. By using a negation operator ! before each character, we exclude specific possibilities from the match. Multiple negation operators allow us to define more complex exclusion patterns.

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