--- title: Zsh: uncover hidden files in globs with (D) | daily.dev description: Zsh globs skip hidden files and directories by default, those starting with a dot. Adding the (D) glob qualifier includes them, for example turning '*' into a... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/zsh-uncover-hidden-files-in-globs-with-d--ltryb2zwq twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Zsh: uncover hidden files in globs with (D) | daily.dev og:description: Zsh globs skip hidden files and directories by default, those starting with a dot. Adding the (D) glob qualifier includes them, for example turning '*' into a... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/zsh-uncover-hidden-files-in-globs-with-d--ltryb2zwq og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/lTrYB2ZWQ.png og:image:alt: Zsh: uncover hidden files in globs with (D) og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Zsh: uncover hidden files in globs with (D) **[Adam Johnson](https://daily.dev/sources/adamj)** · 2 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Zsh globs skip hidden files and directories by default, those starting with a dot. Adding the (D) glob qualifier includes them, for example turning '*' into a match that also lists '.env', '.git', and '.github'. This matters most for recursive globs with '**/', since without (D), Zsh also skips hidden directories entirely: '**/*.yml' finds nothing in a repo with YAML files only inside '.github', while '**/*.yml(D)' finds them. The qualifier never matches the special '.' and '..' entries. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### Why does my zsh glob pattern **/*.yml find no matches even though .yml files exist in my repo Zsh's recursive glob '**/' skips hidden directories by default, so if your YAML files live inside a dot-prefixed folder like '.github', the pattern finds nothing. Adding the '(D)' glob qualifier, for example '**/*.yml(D)', makes zsh include hidden directories and files in the match, revealing files like '.github/dependabot.yml' and '.github/workflows/main.yml'. _Debugging shell globbing quirks like this is easier when you track zsh tips on daily.dev._ ### How do I make zsh's * glob match dotfiles like .env and .git Append the '(D)' glob qualifier to the pattern, for example 'ls -d *(D)', which includes hidden files and directories (names starting with a dot) in the match. Without it, zsh's '*' only matches non-hidden entries. Note that '(D)' never matches the special '.' and '..' entries, so those won't clutter your results. _Developers tuning their shell workflow can keep finding practical zsh tricks like this on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Zsh: find the largest files with the \(OL\) glob qualifier](https://daily.dev/posts/zsh-find-the-largest-files-with-the-ol-glob-qualifier-9cv5xzn5k) · Adam Johnson · 5 upvotes · 0 comments - [Glob patterns explained \(and why .gitignore behaves that way\)](https://daily.dev/posts/glob-patterns-explained-and-why-gitignore-behaves-that-way--dz2lmsm4g) · Flavio Copes · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Zsh: tab complete glob qualifiers](https://daily.dev/posts/zsh-tab-complete-glob-qualifiers-trzdr8umc) · Adam Johnson · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Parse Wildcard Arguments in Bash — Nick Janetakis](https://daily.dev/posts/parse-wildcard-arguments-in-bash-nick-janetakis-g9vroomhd) · Nick Janetakis · 2 upvotes · 1 comments - [The Many Flavors of Ignore Files](https://daily.dev/posts/the-many-flavors-of-ignore-files-qs2wgw4dz) · Lobsters · 4 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#cli](https://daily.dev/tags/cli), [#shell](https://daily.dev/tags/shell), [#bash](https://daily.dev/tags/bash) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/zsh-uncover-hidden-files-in-globs-with-d--ltryb2zwq) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Zsh: uncover hidden files in globs with (D)","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/zsh-uncover-hidden-files-in-globs-with-d--ltryb2zwq","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/zsh-uncover-hidden-files-in-globs-with-d--ltryb2zwq"},"datePublished":"2026-10-29T20:58:30.040Z","dateModified":"2026-10-29T20:59:13.705Z","description":"Zsh globs skip hidden files and directories by default, those starting with a dot. 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