Glob Implicit Wildcards, File Types, and References

If you wanted to search the [zed repository](https://github.com/zed-industries/zed) for examples of [Configuring Language Servers](https://zed.dev/docs/configuring-languages#configuring-language-servers) (under `"lsp"` in Zed settings.json) you could search for `"lsp"` and in the "Include" filter specify `docs/**/*.md`. This would only match files whose path was under the `docs` directory or any nested subdirectories `**/` of that folder with a filename that ends in `.md`. If instead you wanted to restrict yourself only to [Zed Language-Specific Documentation](https://zed.dev/docs/languages) pages you could define a narrower pattern of: `docs/src/languages/*.md` this would match [`docs/src/languages/rust.md`](https://github.com/zed-industries/zed/blob/main/docs/src/languages/rust.md) and [`docs/src/languages/cpp.md`](https://github.com/zed-industries/zed/blob/main/docs/src/languages/cpp.md) but not [`docs/src/configuring-languages.md`](https://github.com/zed-industries/zed/blob/main/docs/src/configuring-languages.md). ### Implicit Wildcards When using the "Include" / "Exclude" filters on a Project Search each glob is wrapped in implicit wildcards. For example to exclude any files with license in the path or filename from your search just type type `license` in the exclude box. Behind the scenes Zed transforms `license` to `**license**`. This means that files named `license.*`, `*.license` or inside a `license` subdirectory will all be filtered out. This enables users to easily filter for `*.ts` without having to remember to type `**/*.ts` every time. Alternatively, if in your Zed settings you wanted a [`file_types`](./configuring-zed.md#file-types) override which only applied to a certain directory you must explicitly include the wildcard globs. For example, if you had a directory of template files with the `html` extension that you wanted to recognize as Jinja2 template you could use the following: ```json { "file_types": { "C++": ["[cC]"], "Jinja2": ["**/templates/*.html"] } } ``` ## References While globs in Zed are implemented as described above, when writing code using globs in other languages, please reference your platform's glob documentation: - [MacOS fnmatch](https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/documentation/System/Conceptual/ManPages_iPhoneOS/man3/fnmatch.3.html) (BSD C Standard Library) - [Linux fnmatch](https://www.gnu.org/software/libc/manual/html_node/Wildcard-Matching.html) (GNU C Standard Library) - [POSIX fnmatch](https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/functions/fnmatch.html) (POSIX Specification) - [node-glob](https://github.com/isaacs/node-glob) (Node.js `glob` package) - [Python glob](https://docs.python.org/3/library/glob.html) (Python Standard Library) - [Golang glob](https://pkg.go.dev/path/filepath#Match) (Go Standard Library) - [gitignore patterns](https://git-scm.com/docs/gitignore) (Gitignore Pattern Format) - [PowerShell: About Wildcards](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/microsoft.powershell.core/about/about_wildcards) (Wildcards in PowerShell)

This section describes how Zed automatically wraps globs in implicit wildcards when using the "Include"/"Exclude" filters, which simplifies filtering file paths. It explains how to specify file type overrides using wildcard globs in Zed settings. The section also provides a list of references to glob documentation for different platforms and languages.