glob

What is glob?

The glob npm package allows users to match file paths against specified patterns similar to how shell works. It is widely used for tasks such as file searching, filtering, and bulk operations on sets of files.

What are glob's main functionalities?

File Pattern Matching

Match files using the patterns the shell uses, like stars and stuff.

const glob = require('glob');

glob('**/*.js', function (er, files) {
  // files is an array of filenames.
  // If the `nonull` option is set, and nothing
  // was found, then files is ["**/*.js"]
  // er is an error object or null.
  console.log(files);
});

Synchronous File Pattern Matching

Perform a synchronous glob search.

const glob = require('glob');

const files = glob.sync('**/*.js');
// files is an array of filenames found matching the pattern.
console.log(files);

Pattern Matching with Promises

Use glob with Promises for better async control flow.

const glob = require('glob');
const util = require('util');
const globPromise = util.promisify(glob);

globPromise('**/*.js').then(files => {
  console.log(files);
}).catch(err => {
  console.error('Error occurred:', err);
});

Other packages similar to glob

minimatch

Minimatch is a minimal matching utility that works similarly to glob but focuses on the pattern matching algorithm itself. It is actually used by glob under the hood for its matching capabilities.

fast-glob

Fast-glob is an alternative to glob that claims to be faster due to its use of streams and parallel processing. It provides a similar API and is often used when performance is a critical factor.

micromatch

Micromatch is a smaller, more efficient, and highly configurable globbing library. It provides a powerful and expressive API for pattern matching and is designed to be faster and safer than minimatch.

README

node-glob - Globbing for Node

One day, in irc://irc.freenode.net#node.js...

[4:46pm] _ry: it would be good to have a file system Glob functionality (to get an array of filenames)

// 9 months later...

npm install glob

(You can also install it by doing node-waf configure build and then linking or copying the folder into your project's node_modules directory.)

Wtf's a "glob"?

A glob is a pattern-matching syntax that shells use. Like when you do rm *.js, the *.js is a glob.

You can do nifty things with them.

Supported Environments

• Macintosh OS X (Darwin)
• FreeBSD
• NetBSD
• Linux
• Solaris

If it doesn't work on one of those environments, please post a bug.

Usage

This is a binding to glob(3) and fnmatch(3). It includes a statically compiled port of the NetBSD glob and fnmatch programs, so it might not exactly match what #include <fnmatch.h> or #include <glob.h> implements on your system.

To load the library:

var glob = require("glob")

Methods

glob

Search through the filesystem asynchronously.

Params

• pattern: String
• flags: int, Optional (see below)
• cb: function

Return

NOTHING!

Example

glob(pattern, flags, function (er, matches) {
  // if an error occurred, it's in er.
  // otherwise, "matches" is an array of filenames.
  ...
})

globSync

Search through the filesystem synchronously

Params

• pattern: String
• flags: int, Optional (see below)

Return

Array of strings that match.

Example

var matches = glob.globSync(pattern, flags) // throws on error

fnmatch

Test if a string matches a pattern. (no i/o performed)

Params

• pattern: String
• str: String to test
• flags: int, Optional (see below)

Example

var isMatch = glob.fnmatch(pattern, str, flags)

Flags

The behavior of glob and fnmatch are modified by several bitwise flags.

The flags are defined on the main glob object. If you have an integer, and want to look up which flag it corresponds to, you can look it up on the glob/globSync functions if it is a glob flag, or on the fnmatch function if it is an fnmatch flag.

That is, fnmatch[fnmatch.FNM_CASEFOLD] === 'FNM_CASEFOLD'.

• GLOB_DEFAULT Used if no flags are passed to glob() or globSync(). Equivalent of GLOB_BRACE|GLOB_LIMIT|GLOB_STAR|GLOB_MARK|GLOB_TILDE.
• FNM_DEFAULT Used if no flags are passed to fnmatch(). Equivalent of FNM_PATHNAME|FNM_PERIOD.
• GLOB_MARK Append / to matching directories.
• GLOB_NOCHECK Return pattern itself if nothing matches.
• GLOB_NOSORT Don't sort.
• GLOB_NOESCAPE Disable backslash escaping.
• GLOB_NOSPACE Malloc call failed.
• GLOB_ABORTED Unignored error.
• GLOB_NOMATCH No match, and GLOB_NOCHECK was not set.
• GLOB_NOSYS Implementation does not support function.
• GLOB_BRACE Expand braces ala csh.
• GLOB_NOMAGIC GLOB_NOCHECK without magic chars (csh).
• GLOB_LIMIT Limit memory used by matches to ARG_MAX
• GLOB_TILDE Expand tilde names from the passwd file.
• GLOB_PERIOD Allow metachars to match leading periods.
• GLOB_NO_DOTDIRS Make . and .. vanish from wildcards.
• GLOB_STAR Use glob ** to recurse directories
• GLOB_QUOTE source compatibility
• FNM_NOMATCH Match failed.
• FNM_NOSYS Function not implemented.
• FNM_NORES Out of resources
• FNM_NOESCAPE Disable backslash escaping.
• FNM_PATHNAME Slash must be matched by slash.
• FNM_PERIOD Period must be matched by period.
• FNM_CASEFOLD Pattern is matched case-insensitive
• FNM_LEADING_DIR Ignore / after Imatch.

Bugs

See https://github.com/isaacs/node-glob/issues.