Glob (programming)

When we are writing programs, we often need to use groups of files that have similar names or characteristics. These groups of files are called "sets" or "patterns." The word "glob" is used to describe a way of searching for these sets or patterns.

Imagine you are playing a game of hide and seek with your friends. You want to find all the hiding places that have something in common, like a red object nearby. This is like searching for a glob of files, where you want to find all the files that have something in common, like a certain extension or name.

The word "glob" comes from the term "global pattern matching," which means searching for a pattern that occurs globally or throughout a set of files. It is used in programming languages like Python, Ruby, and Unix shell commands to search for sets or patterns of files.

In simple terms, globbing is used to find files in a folder that match a certain pattern or criteria. For example, you might want to find all files that end in ".txt" in a folder. Using globbing, you can quickly find and access all these files without having to manually sort through them.

In summary, globbing is a way of searching for sets or patterns of files in a folder, making it easier for programmers to access and work with large groups of files.