lib/PublicInbox/LEI.pm         |  3 ++-
 lib/PublicInbox/LeiExternal.pm | 38 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-
 lib/PublicInbox/LeiQuery.pm    | 14 +++++++++-----

diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/LEI.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/LEI.pm
index 05a39cadffe3f4c08393d4b078e7241f2b230a94..3cb7a32779f168e7fbdae1e141d39da20fb4d22a 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/LEI.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/LEI.pm
@@ -104,7 +104,7 @@ our %CMD = ( # sorted in order of importance/use:
 'q' => [ 'SEARCH_TERMS...', 'search for messages matching terms', qw(
 	save-as=s output|mfolder|o=s format|f=s dedupe|d=s thread|t augment|a
 	sort|s=s reverse|r offset=i remote! local! external! pretty
-	include|I=s@ exclude=s@ only=s@ jobs|j=s
+	include|I=s@ exclude=s@ only=s@ jobs|j=s globoff|g
 	mua-cmd|mua=s no-torsocks torsocks=s verbose|v quiet|q
 	received-after=s received-before=s sent-after=s sent-since=s),
 	PublicInbox::LeiQuery::curl_opt(), opt_dash('limit|n=i', '[0-9]+') ],
@@ -201,6 +201,7 @@
 my %OPTDESC = (
 'help|h' => 'show this built-in help',
 'quiet|q' => 'be quiet',
+'globoff|g' => "do not match locations using '*?' wildcards and '[]' ranges",
 'verbose|v' => 'be more verbose',
 'solve!' => 'do not attempt to reconstruct blobs from emails',
 'torsocks=s' => ['auto|no|yes',
diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/LeiExternal.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/LeiExternal.pm
index 3853cfc13c3ba372ab1568ea4310d6f087056f53..6b4c7fb0334388e2dabdf95a4f98e71a9f0ec72a 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/LeiExternal.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/LeiExternal.pm
@@ -39,7 +39,7 @@ 	});
 }
 
 sub ext_canonicalize {
-	my ($location) = $_[-1];
+	my ($location) = @_;
 	if ($location !~ m!\Ahttps?://!) {
 		PublicInbox::Config::rel2abs_collapsed($location);
 	} else {
@@ -50,6 +50,42 @@ 		$path =~ tr!/!/!s; # squeeze redundant '/'
 		$uri->path($path);
 		$uri->as_string;
 	}
+}
+
+my %patmap = ('*' => '[^/]*?', '?' => '[^/]', '[' => '[', ']' => ']');
+sub glob2pat {
+	my ($glob) = @_;
+        $glob =~ s!(.)!$patmap{$1} || "\Q$1"!ge;
+        $glob;
+}
+
+sub get_externals {
+	my ($self, $loc, $exclude) = @_;
+	return (ext_canonicalize($loc)) if -e $loc;
+
+	my @m;
+	my @cur = externals_each($self);
+	my $do_glob = !$self->{opt}->{globoff}; # glob by default
+	if ($do_glob && ($loc =~ /[\*\?]/s || $loc =~ /\[.*\]/s)) {
+		my $re = glob2pat($loc);
+		@m = grep(m!$re!, @cur);
+		return @m if scalar(@m);
+	} elsif (index($loc, '/') < 0) { # exact basename match:
+		@m = grep(m!/\Q$loc\E/?\z!, @cur);
+		return @m if scalar(@m) == 1;
+	} elsif ($exclude) { # URL, maybe:
+		my $canon = ext_canonicalize($loc);
+		@m = grep(m!\A\Q$canon\E\z!, @cur);
+		return @m if scalar(@m) == 1;
+	} else { # URL:
+		return (ext_canonicalize($loc));
+	}
+	if (scalar(@m) == 0) {
+		$self->fail("`$loc' is unknown");
+	} else {
+		$self->fail("`$loc' is ambiguous:\n", map { "\t$_\n" } @m);
+	}
+	();
 }
 
 sub lei_add_external {
diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/LeiQuery.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/LeiQuery.pm
index 72a67c24f18dfc89d2a2dee32eb0d86afafece81..10b8d6fae68339ab81df2ed1e3c268f204ac102e 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/LeiQuery.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/LeiQuery.pm
@@ -31,17 +31,21 @@ 		$lxs->prepare_external($sto->search);
 	}
 	if (@only) {
 		for my $loc (@only) {
-			$lxs->prepare_external($self->ext_canonicalize($loc));
+			my @loc = $self->get_externals($loc) or return;
+			$lxs->prepare_external($_) for @loc;
 		}
 	} else {
 		for my $loc (@{$opt->{include} // []}) {
-			$lxs->prepare_external($self->ext_canonicalize($loc));
+			my @loc = $self->get_externals($loc) or return;
+			$lxs->prepare_external($_) for @loc;
 		}
 		# --external is enabled by default, but allow --no-external
 		if ($opt->{external} //= 1) {
-			my %x = map {;
-				($self->ext_canonicalize($_), 1)
-			} @{$self->{exclude} // []};
+			my %x;
+			for my $loc (@{$opt->{exclude} // []}) {
+				my @l = $self->get_externals($loc, 1) or return;
+				$x{$_} = 1 for @l;
+			}
 			my $ne = $self->externals_each(\&prep_ext, $lxs, \%x);
 			$opt->{remote} //= !($lxs->locals - $opt->{'local'});
 			if ($opt->{'local'}) {