Patch #943206:

`glob.glob()` currently calls itself recursively to build a list of matches of
the dirname part of the pattern and then filters by the basename part. This is
effectively BFS. ``glob.glob('*/*/*/*/*/foo')`` will build a huge list of all
directories 5 levels deep even if only a handful of them contain a ``foo``
entry. A generator-based recusion would never have to store these list at once
by implementing DFS. This patch converts the `glob` function to an `iglob`
recursive generator . `glob()` now just returns ``list(iglob(pattern))``.

I also cleaned up the code a bit (reduced duplicate `has_magic()` checks and
created a second `glob0` helper func so that the main loop need not be
duplicated).

Thanks to Cherniavsky Beni for the patch!

Doc/lib/libglob.tex

@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ and \function{os.path.expandvars()}.)
 \index{filenames!pathname expansion}
 
 \begin{funcdesc}{glob}{pathname}
-Returns a possibly-empty list of path names that match \var{pathname},
+Return a possibly-empty list of path names that match \var{pathname},
 which must be a string containing a path specification.
 \var{pathname} can be either absolute (like
 \file{/usr/src/Python-1.5/Makefile}) or relative (like
@@ -24,6 +24,12 @@ which must be a string containing a path specification.
 Broken symlinks are included in the results (as in the shell).
 \end{funcdesc}
 
+\begin{funcdesc}{iglob}{pathname}
+Return an iterator which yields the same values as \function{glob()}
+without actually storing them all simultaneously.
+\versionadded{2.5}
+\end{funcdesc}
+
 For example, consider a directory containing only the following files:
 \file{1.gif}, \file{2.txt}, and \file{card.gif}.  \function{glob()}
 will produce the following results.  Notice how any leading components

Lib/glob.py

@@ -4,43 +4,50 @@ import os
 import fnmatch
 import re
 
-__all__ = ["glob"]
+__all__ = ["glob", "iglob"]
 
 def glob(pathname):
     """Return a list of paths matching a pathname pattern.
 
     The pattern may contain simple shell-style wildcards a la fnmatch.
 
+    """
+    return list(iglob(pathname))
+
+def iglob(pathname):
+    """Return a list of paths matching a pathname pattern.
+
+    The pattern may contain simple shell-style wildcards a la fnmatch.
+
     """
     if not has_magic(pathname):
         if os.path.lexists(pathname):
-            return [pathname]
-        else:
-            return []
+            yield pathname
+        return
     dirname, basename = os.path.split(pathname)
     if not dirname:
-        return glob1(os.curdir, basename)
-    elif has_magic(dirname):
-        list = glob(dirname)
+        for name in glob1(os.curdir, basename):
+            yield name
+        return
+    if has_magic(dirname):
+        dirs = iglob(dirname)
     else:
-        list = [dirname]
-    if not has_magic(basename):
-        result = []
-        for dirname in list:
-            if basename or os.path.isdir(dirname):
-                name = os.path.join(dirname, basename)
-                if os.path.lexists(name):
-                    result.append(name)
+        dirs = [dirname]
+    if has_magic(basename):
+        glob_in_dir = glob1
     else:
-        result = []
-        for dirname in list:
-            sublist = glob1(dirname, basename)
-            for name in sublist:
-                result.append(os.path.join(dirname, name))
-    return result
+        glob_in_dir = glob0
+    for dirname in dirs:
+        for name in glob_in_dir(dirname, basename):
+            yield os.path.join(dirname, name)
+
+# These 2 helper functions non-recursively glob inside a literal directory.
+# They return a list of basenames. `glob1` accepts a pattern while `glob0`
+# takes a literal basename (so it only has to check for its existence).
 
 def glob1(dirname, pattern):
-    if not dirname: dirname = os.curdir
+    if not dirname:
+        dirname = os.curdir
     try:
         names = os.listdir(dirname)
     except os.error:
@@ -49,6 +56,17 @@ def glob1(dirname, pattern):
         names=filter(lambda x: x[0]!='.',names)
     return fnmatch.filter(names,pattern)
 
+def glob0(dirname, basename):
+    if basename == '':
+        # `os.path.split()` returns an empty basename for paths ending with a
+        # directory separator.  'q*x/' should match only directories.
+        if os.isdir(dirname):
+            return [basename]
+    else:
+        if os.path.lexists(os.path.join(dirname, basename)):
+            return [basename]
+    return []
+
 
 magic_check = re.compile('[*?[]')
 

Lib/test/test_glob.py

@@ -61,7 +61,9 @@ class GlobTests(unittest.TestCase):
         else:
             pattern = os.path.join(*parts)
         p = os.path.join(self.tempdir, pattern)
-        return glob.glob(p)
+        res = glob.glob(p)
+        self.assertEqual(list(glob.iglob(p)), res)
+        return res
 
     def assertSequencesEqual_noorder(self, l1, l2):
         self.assertEqual(set(l1), set(l2))