escalade

What is escalade?

The escalade npm package is a utility designed to simplify the process of ascending file system directories and performing actions based on the presence of specific files or directories. It is particularly useful for tasks such as configuration file discovery, project root identification, and more, by moving up from a given directory until a specified condition is met.

What are escalade's main functionalities?

Finding a specific file in parent directories

This feature allows you to start from a specific directory and move up the directory tree until a file named 'target-file.txt' is found. Once found, you can return a specific path or action based on the discovery.

const escalade = require('escalade');

escalade('/start/path', (dir, names) => {
  if (names.includes('target-file.txt')) {
    return 'path/to/return';
  }
});

Custom condition for directory traversal

This demonstrates how escalade can be used to ascend directories based on a custom condition, such as finding a configuration file with a specific extension. This is useful for dynamically locating project or application configuration files.

const escalade = require('escalade');

escalade('/start/path', (dir, names) => {
  if (names.some(name => name.endsWith('.config.js'))) {
    return 'path/to/specific/config';
  }
});

Other packages similar to escalade

find-up

Similar to escalade, find-up allows you to find a file or directory by looking upwards from a given directory. The main difference is in the API and how you specify the search criteria and handle the results.

pkg-up

pkg-up is focused on finding the closest package.json file in a directory tree. While it serves a more specific purpose compared to escalade, it shares the concept of ascending directories to locate files.