# How to use \* with backticks
**URL:** https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-use-with-backticks/11682
**Category:** New to Julia
**Created:** [June 14, 2018, 8:09pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-use-with-backticks/11682 "2018-06-14T20:09:47Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@ko56](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/ko56)
#### Post date: [June 14, 2018, 8:09pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-use-with-backticks/11682/1 "2018-06-14T20:09:47Z")
I cannot figure out how to run the shell command “ls data/\*.sol” using Julia’s backtick mechanism. The obvious
run(`ls data/*.sol`)
produces
ls: data/\*: No such file or directory
ERROR: failed process: Process(`ls 'data/*'`, ProcessExited(1)) [1]
---
### Author:  [@ko56](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/ko56)
#### Post date: [June 14, 2018, 8:11pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-use-with-backticks/11682/2 "2018-06-14T20:11:07Z")
Sorry, somehow the backticks didn’t make it into
`run(`ls data/\*.sol`)`
---
### Author:  [@GunnarFarneback](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/GunnarFarneback)
#### Post date: [June 14, 2018, 8:18pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-use-with-backticks/11682/3 "2018-06-14T20:18:44Z")
`run` doesn’t run a shell unless you explicitly ask it to. Try
```julia
run(`sh -c ls data/*.sol`)
```
---
### Author:  [@rdeits](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/rdeits)
#### Post date: [June 14, 2018, 8:22pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-use-with-backticks/11682/4 "2018-06-14T20:22:32Z")
It’s really not recommended to use `run(`sh -c ....`)` because it opens you up to all of the quoting problems, security holes, and general confusion of shell interpolation. See: [A small package to run string as shell command - #5 by stevengj](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/a-small-package-to-run-string-as-shell-command/6163/5) and [Quoting in shell commands](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/quoting-in-shell-commands/6781)
---
### Author:  [@stevengj](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/stevengj)
#### Post date: [June 14, 2018, 8:24pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-use-with-backticks/11682/5 "2018-06-14T20:24:05Z")
You can do file globbing without the shell using
> **[GitHub - vtjnash/Glob.jl: Posix-compliant file name pattern matching](https://github.com/vtjnash/Glob.jl)**
>
> Posix-compliant file name pattern matching. Contribute to vtjnash/Glob.jl development by creating an account on GitHub.
and interpolate the resulting list of files into a backtick expression.
---
### Author:  [@ko56](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/ko56)
#### Post date: [June 14, 2018, 8:38pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-use-with-backticks/11682/6 "2018-06-14T20:38:01Z")
Thanks, that’s what I was looking for.
Perhaps the section “Running External Programs” of the manual could mention the (shell) globbing issue?