diff -r b10a9d4f08eb Doc/library/glob.rst
--- a/Doc/library/glob.rst	Mon Mar 11 09:43:25 2013 +0200
+++ b/Doc/library/glob.rst	Mon Mar 11 16:16:21 2013 +0200
@@ -40,6 +40,17 @@
    without actually storing them all simultaneously.
 
 
+.. function:: escape(pathname)
+
+   Escape all special characters (``'?'``, ``'*'`` and ``'['``).
+   This is useful if you want to match an arbitrary literal string that may
+   have special characters in it.  Do not escape special characters in the
+   drive/UNC sharepoint (i.e. on Windows ``escape('//?/c:/Quo vadis?.txt')``
+   returns ``'//?/c:/Quo vadis[?].txt'``).
+
+   .. versionadded:: 3.4
+
+
 For example, consider a directory containing only the following files:
 :file:`1.gif`, :file:`2.txt`, and :file:`card.gif`.  :func:`glob` will produce
 the following results.  Notice how any leading components of the path are
diff -r b10a9d4f08eb Lib/glob.py
--- a/Lib/glob.py	Mon Mar 11 09:43:25 2013 +0200
+++ b/Lib/glob.py	Mon Mar 11 16:16:21 2013 +0200
@@ -79,8 +79,8 @@
     return []
 
 
-magic_check = re.compile('[*?[]')
-magic_check_bytes = re.compile(b'[*?[]')
+magic_check = re.compile('([*?[])')
+magic_check_bytes = re.compile(b'([*?[])')
 
 def has_magic(s):
     if isinstance(s, bytes):
@@ -91,3 +91,17 @@
 
 def _ishidden(path):
     return path[0] in ('.', b'.'[0])
+
+def escape(pathname):
+    """Escape all special characters.
+    """
+    # Escaping is done by wrapping any of "*?[" between square brackets.
+    # Metacharacters do not work in the drive part and shouldn't be escaped.
+    drive, _ = os.path.splitdrive(pathname)
+    if drive:
+        pathname = pathname[len(drive)]
+    if isinstance(pathname, bytes):
+        pathname = magic_check_bytes.sub(br'[\1]', pathname)
+    else:
+        pathname = magic_check.sub(r'[\1]', pathname)
+    return drive + pathname
diff -r b10a9d4f08eb Lib/test/test_glob.py
--- a/Lib/test/test_glob.py	Mon Mar 11 09:43:25 2013 +0200
+++ b/Lib/test/test_glob.py	Mon Mar 11 16:16:21 2013 +0200
@@ -169,6 +169,21 @@
         eq(glob.glob('\\\\*\\*\\'), [])
         eq(glob.glob(b'\\\\*\\*\\'), [])
 
+    def test_escape(self):
+        def check(arg, expected):
+            self.assertEqual(glob.escape(arg), expected)
+            self.assertEqual(glob.escape(os.fsencode(arg)),
+                             os.fsencode(expected))
+        check('[', '[[]')
+        check('?', '[?]')
+        check('*', '[*]')
+        if sys.platform == 'win32':
+            check('?:?', '?:[?]')
+            check('*:*', '*:[*]')
+            check('\\\\?\\c:\\?', '\\\\?\\c:\\[?]')
+            check('\\\\*\\*\\*', '\\\\*\\*\\[*]')
+            check('//?/c:/?', '//?/c:/[?]')
+            check('//*/*/*', '//*/*/[*]')
 
 def test_main():
     run_unittest(GlobTests)