Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.
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glob
 (glŏb) Pronunciation Key
n.
[Middle English globbe, large mass, from Latin globus, globular mass.] |
Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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| glob | |
noun | |
| a compact mass; "a ball of mud caught him on the shoulder" [syn: ball] |
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glob
/glob/, *not* /glohb/ To expand wild card characters in a path name.
In Unix the file name wild cards are:
* = zero or more characters (E.g. UN*X)
? = any single character
[] any of the enclosed characters
indicate alternation of comma-separated alternatives, thus foobaz,qux would expand to "foobaz" or "fooqux". This syntax generates a list of all possible expansions, rather than matching one.
These have become sufficiently pervasive that hackers use them in written English, especially in electronic mail or Usenet news on technical topics. E.g. "He said his name was [KC]arl" (expresses ambiguity). "I don't read talk.politics.*" (any of the talk.politics subgroups on Usenet). Other examples are given under the entry for X. Note that glob patterns are similar, but not identical, to those used in regexps.
"glob" was a subprogram that expanded wild cards in archaic pre-Bourne versions of the Unix shell.
(1997-07-16)
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glob
/glob/, _not_ /glohb/ v.,n. [Unix; common] To expand special characters in a wildcarded name, or the act of so doing (the action is also called `globbing'). The Unix conventions for filename wildcarding have become sufficiently pervasive that many hackers use some of them in written English, especially in email or news on technical topics. Those commonly encountered include the following:* wildcard for any string (see also UN*X)
? wildcard for any single character (generally read this way only at the beginning or in the middle of a word)
[] delimits a wildcard matching any of the enclosed characters
alternation of comma-separated alternatives; thus, `foobaz,qux' would be read as `foobaz' or `fooqux' Some examples: "He said his name was [KC]arl" (expresses ambiguity). "I don't read talk.politics.*" (any of the talk.politics subgroups on Usenet). Other examples are given under the entry for X. Note that glob patterns are similar, but not identical, to those used in regexps.
Historical note: The jargon usage derives from `glob', the name of a subprogram that expanded wildcards in archaic pre-Bourne versions of the Unix shell.
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