Search a file system for files that match a given pattern

Question

My concerns with this code:

1. Is there a more efficient way to find files by pattern in Python?
2. Does os.walk() work in Windows?
3. Is this code pythonic?
4. Should search() be broken down into 2 functions?
5. Is it stupid to handle IOError exception by printing the error msg to the console?

#!/usr/bin/env python

'''
Finding files by pattern
'''

import os
import fnmatch
from os.path import join


def search(base, patt):
    ''' Yield files that match a given pattern '''
    for root, dirs, files in os.walk(base):
        try:
            for _ in [join(root, _) for _ in files if fnmatch.fnmatch(_, patt)]:
                yield _
        except IOError as error:
            print error


def example_use(d, p):
    ''' Example use of search function '''
    for _ in search(d, p):
        print _


if __name__ == '__main__':
    example_use('/var', '*.log')

Answer 1

Looks quite pythonic. However:

• _ stands for don't care, akin to famous hunoz. It is not expected to be used in expressions later on; it is a placeholder.

Fot instance, I am totally lost in what

        for _ in [join(root, _) for _ in files if fnmatch.fnmatch(_, patt)]:
            yield _

does actually yield.

• os.walk() works perfectly well on Windows

• I don't see how do you want to break search into two functions. What would those functions do?

• Any usable file matcher should have an option to specify file type (plain vs directory vs link vs etc), attributes, etc.