Date: 2012aug17 Update: 2025sep15 OS: Linux Language: bash Q. bash: How can I make my bash glob code work nicely when there are no files that match? A. This code:

for FILE in *.jpg; do echo file=$FILE done

Works fine unless there are no .jpg files. In that case it executes the loop once with FILE set to *.jpg -- not very nice. Here's an variation that handles zero matches:

for FILE in $(ls *.jpg 2>/dev/null); do echo file=$FILE done

This works but is slightly slower since it shells out the ls command. And its not as simple. There is still the issue of handling spaces in filenames.