Expand /**/ in a php glob expression to simulate nested folder expressions (which otherwise aren't supported for some reason)

php-expanded-glob

function expandExpression($path,$depth=3,$marker="/**/"){
    $e_path = explode($marker,$path);
    if( count($e_path) > 2 ){
        throw new \InvalidArgumentException("Only one instance of '{$marker}' is supported per expression.");
    } elseif( count($e_path) < 2 ){
        return $e_path;
    }
    $base_path = $e_path[0];
    $sub_path = $e_path[1];

    $dir_globs = [];
    for($i=0;$i<=$depth;$i++){
        $filler = $i?array_fill(0,$i,"*/"):["/"];
        $dir_globs[] = implode("",$filler);
    }

    return "{$base_path}/{".implode(",",$dir_globs)."}{$sub_path}";
}

$expression = "C:/Users/mypath/**/html_body.html";
$expanded = expandExpression($expression,3);
echo $expanded;
//C:/Users/mypath/{/,*/,*/*/,*/*/*/}html_body.html

$paths = glob($expanded,GLOB_BRACE);