Issue
I didn't find a lot of info about this, as far as I know it matches filenames and directories recursively, but how does it work?
Solution
The glob-expression ** is used to match all files and zero or more directories and subdirectories. If the pattern is followed by a /, only directories and subdirectories match.
This means that it is used in a recursive file-search during path-name expansion patterns on the command line.
Depending on the shell you use, it needs to be enabled. In bash this is done with:
$ shopt -s globstar
Here are examples:
# list all files recursively
$ echo **
# list all files recursively that end with .txt
$ echo **/*.txt
# list all files recursively that are in a subdirectory foo
$ echo **/foo/**
Beware that the following pattern does not work recursively **.txt. This is just seen as a combination of two single asterisk globs and is identical to *.txt.
Note: there are subtle differences between bash and zsh, but in general it works the same.
Answered By - kvantour Answer Checked By - Mildred Charles (WPSolving Admin)
