/proc slows % echo /**/*/etc/r*(/N)

[Ray Andrews <rayandrews@eastlink.ca>]

I used to do this kind of thing without any problems:

     % echo /**/*/etc/r*(/N)

... but just trying it, zsh labors for close to an hour, then spits out 
countless pages of:

/proc/9/root/etc/rc0.d /proc/9/root/etc/rc1.d /proc/9/root/etc/rc2.d 
/proc/9/root/etc/rc3.d /proc/9/root/etc/rc4.d /proc/9/root/etc/rc5.d 
/proc/9/root/etc/rc6.d /proc/9/root/etc/rcS.d /proc/9/root/etc/rsyslog.d 
/proc/9/task/9/cwd/etc/rc0.d /proc/9/task/9/cwd/etc/rc1.d 
/proc/9/task/9/cwd/etc/rc2.d /proc/9/task/9/cwd/etc/rc3.d 
/proc/9/task/9/cwd/etc/rc4.d /proc/9/task/9/cwd/etc/rc5.d 
/proc/9/task/9/cwd/etc/rc6.d /proc/9/task/9/cwd/etc/rcS.d 
/proc/9/task/9/cwd/etc/rsyslog.d /proc/9/task/9/root/etc/rc0.d 
/proc/9/task/9/root/etc/rc1.d /proc/9/task/9/root/etc/rc2.d 
/proc/9/task/9/root/etc/rc3.d /proc/9/task/9/root/etc/rc4.d 
/proc/9/task/9/root/etc/rc5.d /proc/9/task/9/root/etc/rc6.d 
/proc/9/task/9/root/etc/rcS.d /proc/9/task/9/root/etc/rsyslog.d

... I'm wondering why /proc wasn't a problem previously and if there's 
anything I can do to filter it out of the search -- probably all the 
Linux 'system' directories too.  I recall that there's some test, 
something in permissions, some flag -- that identifies these 
not-quite-real directories -- zsh knows who they are.  They're really in 
RAM, yes?  I know the tilde is used to make exceptions:

     for bb in *.eml~save*; do

... all files matching '*.eml' excepting those that match 'save*' ... 
but I can't get the syntax correct with the above.

     % echo /**/*/etc/r*~/proc*(/N)

     % echo /**/*/etc/r*(/N)~/proc*

... were busts.  But the right answer is to filter out all those virtual 
directories.  Don't know why this didn't used to be a problem.  But I 
think I did deal with this issue a few years ago, too.