How to use `case_sensitive` option in pathlib glob?

Question

In the documentation of pathlib, it says

Path.glob(pattern, *, case_sensitive=None)

There is two things I do not understand.

1. what is the second parameter * ?

2. I want to use case_sensitive option. But when I run

   somepath.glob('*.txt',case_sensitive=False)

I got TypeError: glob() got an unexpected keyword argument 'case_sensitive'

How to use case_sensitive option in pathlib glob?

Answer 1

A lone * without a parameter name indicates that everything following is a keyword-only argument. That is, with the declaration

def glob(pattern, *, case_sensitive=None)

We can pass pattern positionally or by-name, but we can only pass case_sensitive by name. So all of the following are valid

path.glob('*')
path.glob(pattern='*')
path.glob('*', case_sensitive=True)
path.glob(pattern='*', case_sensitive=True)
path.glob(case_sensitive=True, pattern='*')

But this is not

path.glob('*', True)

The Python designers wrote the function in this way to force you to write more readable code. If you were able to write path.glob('*', True), then everyone reading your code (including you in two weeks) would have to go look up what that second parameter is. But with the case_sensitive=True syntax, it's immediately self-evident.

As for your second question, the documentation specifies

Changed in version 3.12: The case_sensitive parameter was added.

So I suspect you're running a version of Python older than 3.12.