Testing for existing file with an extension fails with globbing [duplicate]

Just a simple terminal session:

$ # the file really exists $ [[ -e mydir/564df455-92e6-ac59-9b96-b3665f2aa3c7.vmem ]] $ echo $? 0 $ # not with globbing though $ [[ -e mydir/*.vmem ]] $ echo $? 1 

The wildcard * is supposed to represent any number of characters. Hm.

What am I missing?

Update

compgen works as expected:

$ compgen -G "mydir/*.vmem"; echo $? 0 

However, I'd like to find out why the original attempt doesn't work. I want to learn Bash, not just get it to work and pass on. I checked: noglob is not set.

Update 2

According to @Aaron, this should (and does) work with the original test:

$ files=( mydir/*.vem ) $ [[ ${#files[@]} -gt 0 ]]; echo $? 0 

This version is actually easier to write and understand in my script function (where the question came up). The whole script is for syncing vmware to a backup folder on a time machine volume.

Using compgen:

# get the status of a vm # argument: path to the vm # compgen exit code: 0 - path(s) found, 1 - nothing found function vm_status() { local vm_path="$1" local status=-1 [[ $status -lt 0 ]] && { compgen -G "$vm_path/*.vmem" > /dev/null; } || { status=0; } # vm is shut down: vm does not contain file with extension .vmem [[ $status -lt 0 ]] && { compgen -G "$vm_path/*.vmss" > /dev/null; } && { status=1; } # vm is suspended: vm contains file with extension .vmss [[ $status -lt 0 ]] && { compgen -G "$vm_path/*.vmem.lck" > /dev/null; } && { status=2; } # vm is running: vm contains folder name ending with .vmem.lck echo $status # should return 0, 1 or 2 } 

Having to throw out the compgen output isn't needed with [[:

# get the status of a vm # argument: path to the vm function vm_status() { shopt -s nullglob # prevents non-matching glob from reporting one file (the glob itself) local vm_path="$1" local status=-1 [[ $status -lt 0 ]] && { files=( "$vm_path"/*.vmem ); } && [[ ${#files[@]} -gt 0 ]] || { status=0; } # vm is shut down: vm does not contain file with extension .vmem [[ $status -lt 0 ]] && { files=( "$vm_path"/*.vmss ); } && [[ ${#files[@]} -gt 0 ]] && { status=1; } # vm is suspended: vm contains file with extension .vmss [[ $status -lt 0 ]] && { files=( "$vm_path"/*.vmem.lck ); } && [[ ${#files[@]} -gt 0 ]] && { status=2; } # vm is running: vm contains folder name ending with .vmem.lck echo $status # should return 0, 1 or 2 }