Document that glob functions in pathlib and glob modules ignore access errors

[Jackenmen]

Documentation

Based on #68308 (and just the fact that it has stayed unchanged for years), I assume this is intentional, and so I'm only creating a docs issue.

This behaviour is not documented anywhere in the relevant documentation, and (to me) it feels a bit surprising:

• pathlib.Path.glob() - https://docs.python.org/3/library/pathlib.html#pathlib.Path.glob
• pathlib.Path.rglob() - https://docs.python.org/3/library/pathlib.html#pathlib.Path.rglob
• "Comparison to the glob module" section in pathlib docs - https://docs.python.org/3/library/pathlib.html#comparison-to-the-glob-module
• glob module - https://docs.python.org/3/library/glob.html

Some examples (ran as a non-root user):

Python 3.14.3 (main, Feb  4 2026, 09:28:29) [GCC 11.4.0] on linux
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> from pathlib import Path
>>> list(Path("/root").glob("*"))
[]
>>> list(Path("/root/x").glob("*"))
[]
>>> import glob
>>> glob.glob("/root/*")
[]
>>> glob.glob("*", root_dir="/root")
[]
>>> glob.glob("*", root_dir="/root", recursive=True)
[]
>>> glob.glob("/root/x/*")
[]
>>> glob.glob("*", root_dir="/root/x")
[]

Linked PRs

• gh-146646: Document that glob functions suppress OSError #147996

[picnixz]

cc @barneygale

[vstinner]

It's not only access errors. The glob module ignores all OSError erros. For example, glob._iterdir() generator is surrounded by:

    try:
        ...
    except OSError:
        return

[WYSIATI]

I'd like to work on this. Based on @vstinner's comment, the scope would be to document that glob functions silently ignore all OSError (not just access errors) — updating both the glob module docs and the pathlib.Path.glob()/rglob() docs.

I'll submit a PR shortly if no objection.