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.
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);
});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 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 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.
Match files using the patterns the shell uses.
The most correct and second fastest glob implementation in JavaScript. (See Comparison to Other JavaScript Glob Implementations at the bottom of this readme.)
Install with npm
npm i glob
Note the npm package name is not node-glob that's a
different thing that was abandoned years ago. Just glob.
// load using import
import { glob, globSync, globStream, globStreamSync, Glob } from 'glob'
// or using commonjs, that's fine, too
const {
glob,
globSync,
globStream,
globStreamSync,
Glob,
} = require('glob')
// the main glob() and globSync() resolve/return array of filenames
// all js files, but don't look in node_modules
const jsfiles = await glob('**/*.js', { ignore: 'node_modules/**' })
// pass in a signal to cancel the glob walk
const stopAfter100ms = await glob('**/*.css', {
signal: AbortSignal.timeout(100),
})
// multiple patterns supported as well
const images = await glob(['css/*.{png,jpeg}', 'public/*.{png,jpeg}'])
// but of course you can do that with the glob pattern also
// the sync function is the same, just returns a string[] instead
// of Promise<string[]>
const imagesAlt = globSync('{css,public}/*.{png,jpeg}')
// you can also stream them, this is a Minipass stream
const filesStream = globStream(['**/*.dat', 'logs/**/*.log'])
// construct a Glob object if you wanna do it that way, which
// allows for much faster walks if you have to look in the same
// folder multiple times.
const g = new Glob('**/foo', {})
// glob objects are async iterators, can also do globIterate() or
// g.iterate(), same deal
for await (const file of g) {
console.log('found a foo file:', file)
}
// pass a glob as the glob options to reuse its settings and caches
const g2 = new Glob('**/bar', g)
// sync iteration works as well
for (const file of g2) {
console.log('found a bar file:', file)
}
// you can also pass withFileTypes: true to get Path objects
// these are like a Dirent, but with some more added powers
// check out http://npm.im/path-scurry for more info on their API
const g3 = new Glob('**/baz/**', { withFileTypes: true })
g3.stream().on('data', path => {
console.log(
'got a path object',
path.fullpath(),
path.isDirectory(),
path.readdirSync().map(e => e.name),
)
})
// if you use stat:true and withFileTypes, you can sort results
// by things like modified time, filter by permission mode, etc.
// All Stats fields will be available in that case. Slightly
// slower, though.
// For example:
const results = await glob('**', { stat: true, withFileTypes: true })
const timeSortedFiles = results
.sort((a, b) => a.mtimeMs - b.mtimeMs)
.map(path => path.fullpath())
const groupReadableFiles = results
.filter(path => path.mode & 0o040)
.map(path => path.fullpath())
// custom ignores can be done like this, for example by saying
// you'll ignore all markdown files, and all folders named 'docs'
const customIgnoreResults = await glob('**', {
ignore: {
ignored: p => /\.md$/.test(p.name),
childrenIgnored: p => p.isNamed('docs'),
},
})
// another fun use case, only return files with the same name as
// their parent folder, plus either `.ts` or `.js`
const folderNamedModules = await glob('**/*.{ts,js}', {
ignore: {
ignored: p => {
const pp = p.parent
return !(p.isNamed(pp.name + '.ts') || p.isNamed(pp.name + '.js'))
},
},
})
// find all files edited in the last hour, to do this, we ignore
// all of them that are more than an hour old
const newFiles = await glob('**', {
// need stat so we have mtime
stat: true,
// only want the files, not the dirs
nodir: true,
ignore: {
ignored: p => {
return new Date() - p.mtime > 60 * 60 * 1000
},
// could add similar childrenIgnored here as well, but
// directory mtime is inconsistent across platforms, so
// probably better not to, unless you know the system
// tracks this reliably.
},
})
Note Glob patterns should always use / as a path separator,
even on Windows systems, as \ is used to escape glob
characters. If you wish to use \ as a path separator instead
of using it as an escape character on Windows platforms, you may
set windowsPathsNoEscape:true in the options. In this mode,
special glob characters cannot be escaped, making it impossible
to match a literal * ? and so on in filenames.
$ glob -h
Usage:
glob [options] [<pattern> [<pattern> ...]]
Expand the positional glob expression arguments into any matching file system
paths found.
-c<command> --cmd=<command>
Run the command provided, passing the glob expression
matches as arguments.
-A --all By default, the glob cli command will not expand any
arguments that are an exact match to a file on disk.
This prevents double-expanding, in case the shell
expands an argument whose filename is a glob
expression.
For example, if 'app/*.ts' would match 'app/[id].ts',
then on Windows powershell or cmd.exe, 'glob app/*.ts'
will expand to 'app/[id].ts', as expected. However, in
posix shells such as bash or zsh, the shell will first
expand 'app/*.ts' to a list of filenames. Then glob
will look for a file matching 'app/[id].ts' (ie,
'app/i.ts' or 'app/d.ts'), which is unexpected.
Setting '--all' prevents this behavior, causing glob to
treat ALL patterns as glob expressions to be expanded,
even if they are an exact match to a file on disk.
When setting this option, be sure to enquote arguments
so that the shell will not expand them prior to passing
them to the glob command process.
-a --absolute Expand to absolute paths
-d --dot-relative Prepend './' on relative matches
-m --mark Append a / on any directories matched
-x --posix Always resolve to posix style paths, using '/' as the
directory separator, even on Windows. Drive letter
absolute matches on Windows will be expanded to their
full resolved UNC maths, eg instead of 'C:\foo\bar', it
will expand to '//?/C:/foo/bar'.
-f --follow Follow symlinked directories when expanding '**'
-R --realpath Call 'fs.realpath' on all of the results. In the case
of an entry that cannot be resolved, the entry is
omitted. This incurs a slight performance penalty, of
course, because of the added system calls.
-s --stat Call 'fs.lstat' on all entries, whether required or not
to determine if it's a valid match.
-b --match-base Perform a basename-only match if the pattern does not
contain any slash characters. That is, '*.js' would be
treated as equivalent to '**/*.js', matching js files
in all directories.
--dot Allow patterns to match files/directories that start
with '.', even if the pattern does not start with '.'
--nobrace Do not expand {...} patterns
--nocase Perform a case-insensitive match. This defaults to
'true' on macOS and Windows platforms, and false on all
others.
Note: 'nocase' should only be explicitly set when it is
known that the filesystem's case sensitivity differs
from the platform default. If set 'true' on
case-insensitive file systems, then the walk may return
more or less results than expected.
--nodir Do not match directories, only files.
Note: to *only* match directories, append a '/' at the
end of the pattern.
--noext Do not expand extglob patterns, such as '+(a|b)'
--noglobstar Do not expand '**' against multiple path portions. Ie,
treat it as a normal '*' instead.
--windows-path-no-escape
Use '\' as a path separator *only*, and *never* as an
escape character. If set, all '\' characters are
replaced with '/' in the pattern.
-D<n> --max-depth=<n> Maximum depth to traverse from the current working
directory
-C<cwd> --cwd=<cwd> Current working directory to execute/match in
-r<root> --root=<root> A string path resolved against the 'cwd', which is used
as the starting point for absolute patterns that start
with '/' (but not drive letters or UNC paths on
Windows).
Note that this *doesn't* necessarily limit the walk to
the 'root' directory, and doesn't affect the cwd
starting point for non-absolute patterns. A pattern
containing '..' will still be able to traverse out of
the root directory, if it is not an actual root
directory on the filesystem, and any non-absolute
patterns will still be matched in the 'cwd'.
To start absolute and non-absolute patterns in the same
path, you can use '--root=' to set it to the empty
string. However, be aware that on Windows systems, a
pattern like 'x:/*' or '//host/share/*' will *always*
start in the 'x:/' or '//host/share/' directory,
regardless of the --root setting.
--platform=<platform> Defaults to the value of 'process.platform' if
available, or 'linux' if not. Setting --platform=win32
on non-Windows systems may cause strange behavior!
-i<ignore> --ignore=<ignore>
Glob patterns to ignore Can be set multiple times
-v --debug Output a huge amount of noisy debug information about
patterns as they are parsed and used to match files.
-h --help Show this usage information
glob(pattern: string | string[], options?: GlobOptions) => Promise<string[] | Path[]>Perform an asynchronous glob search for the pattern(s) specified.
Returns
Path
objects if the withFileTypes option is set to true. See below
for full options field desciptions.
globSync(pattern: string | string[], options?: GlobOptions) => string[] | Path[]Synchronous form of glob().
Alias: glob.sync()
globIterate(pattern: string | string[], options?: GlobOptions) => AsyncGenerator<string>Return an async iterator for walking glob pattern matches.
Alias: glob.iterate()
globIterateSync(pattern: string | string[], options?: GlobOptions) => Generator<string>Return a sync iterator for walking glob pattern matches.
Alias: glob.iterate.sync(), glob.sync.iterate()
globStream(pattern: string | string[], options?: GlobOptions) => Minipass<string | Path>Return a stream that emits all the strings or Path objects and
then emits end when completed.
Alias: glob.stream()
globStreamSync(pattern: string | string[], options?: GlobOptions) => Minipass<string | Path>Syncronous form of globStream(). Will read all the matches as
fast as you consume them, even all in a single tick if you
consume them immediately, but will still respond to backpressure
if they're not consumed immediately.
Alias: glob.stream.sync(), glob.sync.stream()
hasMagic(pattern: string | string[], options?: GlobOptions) => booleanReturns true if the provided pattern contains any "magic" glob
characters, given the options provided.
Brace expansion is not considered "magic" unless the
magicalBraces option is set, as brace expansion just turns one
string into an array of strings. So a pattern like 'x{a,b}y'
would return false, because 'xay' and 'xby' both do not
contain any magic glob characters, and it's treated the same as
if you had called it on ['xay', 'xby']. When
magicalBraces:true is in the options, brace expansion is
treated as a pattern having magic.
escape(pattern: string, options?: GlobOptions) => stringEscape all magic characters in a glob pattern, so that it will only ever match literal strings
If the windowsPathsNoEscape option is used, then characters are
escaped by wrapping in [], because a magic character wrapped in
a character class can only be satisfied by that exact character.
Slashes (and backslashes in windowsPathsNoEscape mode) cannot
be escaped or unescaped.
unescape(pattern: string, options?: GlobOptions) => stringUn-escape a glob string that may contain some escaped characters.
If the windowsPathsNoEscape option is used, then square-brace
escapes are removed, but not backslash escapes. For example, it
will turn the string '[*]' into *, but it will not turn
'\\*' into '*', because \ is a path separator in
windowsPathsNoEscape mode.
When windowsPathsNoEscape is not set, then both brace escapes
and backslash escapes are removed.
Slashes (and backslashes in windowsPathsNoEscape mode) cannot
be escaped or unescaped.
GlobAn object that can perform glob pattern traversals.
const g = new Glob(pattern: string | string[], options: GlobOptions)Options object is required.
See full options descriptions below.
Note that a previous Glob object can be passed as the
GlobOptions to another Glob instantiation to re-use settings
and caches with a new pattern.
Traversal functions can be called multiple times to run the walk again.
g.stream()Stream results asynchronously,
g.streamSync()Stream results synchronously.
g.iterate()Default async iteration function. Returns an AsyncGenerator that iterates over the results.
g.iterateSync()Default sync iteration function. Returns a Generator that iterates over the results.
g.walk()Returns a Promise that resolves to the results array.
g.walkSync()Returns a results array.
All options are stored as properties on the Glob object.
opts The options provided to the constructor.patterns An array of parsed immutable Pattern objects.Exported as GlobOptions TypeScript interface. A GlobOptions
object may be provided to any of the exported methods, and must
be provided to the Glob constructor.
All options are optional, boolean, and false by default, unless otherwise noted.
All resolved options are added to the Glob object as properties.
If you are running many glob operations, you can pass a Glob
object as the options argument to a subsequent operation to
share the previously loaded cache.
cwd String path or file:// string or URL object. The
current working directory in which to search. Defaults to
process.cwd(). See also: "Windows, CWDs, Drive Letters, and
UNC Paths", below.
This option may be either a string path or a file:// URL
object or string.
root A string path resolved against the cwd option, which
is used as the starting point for absolute patterns that start
with /, (but not drive letters or UNC paths on Windows).
Note that this doesn't necessarily limit the walk to the
root directory, and doesn't affect the cwd starting point for
non-absolute patterns. A pattern containing .. will still be
able to traverse out of the root directory, if it is not an
actual root directory on the filesystem, and any non-absolute
patterns will be matched in the cwd. For example, the
pattern /../* with {root:'/some/path'} will return all
files in /some, not all files in /some/path. The pattern
* with {root:'/some/path'} will return all the entries in
the cwd, not the entries in /some/path.
To start absolute and non-absolute patterns in the same
path, you can use {root:''}. However, be aware that on
Windows systems, a pattern like x:/* or //host/share/* will
always start in the x:/ or //host/share directory,
regardless of the root setting.
windowsPathsNoEscape Use \\ as a path separator only, and
never as an escape character. If set, all \\ characters are
replaced with / in the pattern.
Note that this makes it impossible to match against paths
containing literal glob pattern characters, but allows matching
with patterns constructed using path.join() and
path.resolve() on Windows platforms, mimicking the (buggy!)
behavior of Glob v7 and before on Windows. Please use with
caution, and be mindful of the caveat below about Windows
paths. (For legacy reasons, this is also set if
allowWindowsEscape is set to the exact value false.)
dot Include .dot files in normal matches and globstar
matches. Note that an explicit dot in a portion of the pattern
will always match dot files.
magicalBraces Treat brace expansion like {a,b} as a "magic"
pattern. Has no effect if {@link nobrace} is set.
Only has effect on the {@link hasMagic} function, no effect on glob pattern matching itself.
dotRelative Prepend all relative path strings with ./ (or
.\ on Windows).
Without this option, returned relative paths are "bare", so
instead of returning './foo/bar', they are returned as
'foo/bar'.
Relative patterns starting with '../' are not prepended with
./, even if this option is set.
mark Add a / character to directory matches. Note that this
requires additional stat calls.
nobrace Do not expand {a,b} and {1..3} brace sets.
noglobstar Do not match ** against multiple filenames. (Ie,
treat it as a normal * instead.)
noext Do not match "extglob" patterns such as +(a|b).
nocase Perform a case-insensitive match. This defaults to
true on macOS and Windows systems, and false on all others.
Note nocase should only be explicitly set when it is
known that the filesystem's case sensitivity differs from the
platform default. If set true on case-sensitive file
systems, or false on case-insensitive file systems, then the
walk may return more or less results than expected.
maxDepth Specify a number to limit the depth of the directory
traversal to this many levels below the cwd.
matchBase Perform a basename-only match if the pattern does
not contain any slash characters. That is, *.js would be
treated as equivalent to **/*.js, matching all js files in
all directories.
nodir Do not match directories, only files. (Note: to match
only directories, put a / at the end of the pattern.)
Note: when follow and nodir are both set, then symbolic
links to directories are also omitted.
stat Call lstat() on all entries, whether required or not
to determine whether it's a valid match. When used with
withFileTypes, this means that matches will include data such
as modified time, permissions, and so on. Note that this will
incur a performance cost due to the added system calls.
ignore string or string[], or an object with ignore and
ignoreChildren methods.
If a string or string[] is provided, then this is treated as a
glob pattern or array of glob patterns to exclude from matches.
To ignore all children within a directory, as well as the entry
itself, append '/**' to the ignore pattern.
Note ignore patterns are always in dot:true mode,
regardless of any other settings.
If an object is provided that has ignored(path) and/or
childrenIgnored(path) methods, then these methods will be
called to determine whether any Path is a match or if its
children should be traversed, respectively.
follow Follow symlinked directories when expanding **
patterns. This can result in a lot of duplicate references in
the presence of cyclic links, and make performance quite bad.
By default, a ** in a pattern will follow 1 symbolic link if
it is not the first item in the pattern, or none if it is the
first item in the pattern, following the same behavior as Bash.
Note: when follow and nodir are both set, then symbolic
links to directories are also omitted.
realpath Set to true to call fs.realpath on all of the
results. In the case of an entry that cannot be resolved, the
entry is omitted. This incurs a slight performance penalty, of
course, because of the added system calls.
absolute Set to true to always receive absolute paths for
matched files. Set to false to always receive relative paths
for matched files.
By default, when this option is not set, absolute paths are
returned for patterns that are absolute, and otherwise paths
are returned that are relative to the cwd setting.
This does not make an extra system call to get the realpath, it only does string path resolution.
absolute may not be used along with withFileTypes.
posix Set to true to use / as the path separator in
returned results. On posix systems, this has no effect. On
Windows systems, this will return / delimited path results,
and absolute paths will be returned in their full resolved UNC
path form, eg insted of 'C:\\foo\\bar', it will return
//?/C:/foo/bar.
platform Defaults to value of process.platform if
available, or 'linux' if not. Setting platform:'win32' on
non-Windows systems may cause strange behavior.
withFileTypes Return PathScurry
Path objects instead of strings. These are similar to a
NodeJS Dirent object, but with additional methods and
properties.
withFileTypes may not be used along with absolute.
signal An AbortSignal which will cancel the Glob walk when
triggered.
fs An override object to pass in custom filesystem methods.
See PathScurry docs for what can
be overridden.
scurry A PathScurry object used
to traverse the file system. If the nocase option is set
explicitly, then any provided scurry object must match this
setting.
includeChildMatches boolean, default true. Do not match any
children of any matches. For example, the pattern **\/foo
would match a/foo, but not a/foo/b/foo in this mode.
This is especially useful for cases like "find all
node_modules folders, but not the ones in node_modules".
In order to support this, the Ignore implementation must
support an add(pattern: string) method. If using the default
Ignore class, then this is fine, but if this is set to
false, and a custom Ignore is provided that does not have
an add() method, then it will throw an error.
Caveat It only ignores matches that would be a descendant of a previous match, and only if that descendant is matched after the ancestor is encountered. Since the file system walk happens in indeterminate order, it's possible that a match will already be added before its ancestor, if multiple or braced patterns are used.
For example:
const results = await glob(
[
// likely to match first, since it's just a stat
'a/b/c/d/e/f',
// this pattern is more complicated! It must to various readdir()
// calls and test the results against a regular expression, and that
// is certainly going to take a little bit longer.
//
// So, later on, it encounters a match at 'a/b/c/d/e', but it's too
// late to ignore a/b/c/d/e/f, because it's already been emitted.
'a/[bdf]/?/[a-z]/*',
],
{ includeChildMatches: false },
)
It's best to only set this to false if you can be reasonably
sure that no components of the pattern will potentially match
one another's file system descendants, or if the occasional
included child entry will not cause problems.
Much more information about glob pattern expansion can be found
by running man bash and searching for Pattern Matching.
"Globs" are the patterns you type when you do stuff like ls *.js on the command line, or put build/* in a .gitignore
file.
Before parsing the path part patterns, braced sections are
expanded into a set. Braced sections start with { and end with
}, with 2 or more comma-delimited sections within. Braced
sections may contain slash characters, so a{/b/c,bcd} would
expand into a/b/c and abcd.
The following characters have special magic meaning when used in
a path portion. With the exception of **, none of these match
path separators (ie, / on all platforms, and \ on Windows).
* Matches 0 or more characters in a single path portion.
When alone in a path portion, it must match at least 1
character. If dot:true is not specified, then * will not
match against a . character at the start of a path portion.? Matches 1 character. If dot:true is not specified, then
? will not match against a . character at the start of a
path portion.[...] Matches a range of characters, similar to a RegExp
range. If the first character of the range is ! or ^ then
it matches any character not in the range. If the first
character is ], then it will be considered the same as \],
rather than the end of the character class.!(pattern|pattern|pattern) Matches anything that does not
match any of the patterns provided. May not contain /
characters. Similar to *, if alone in a path portion, then
the path portion must have at least one character.?(pattern|pattern|pattern) Matches zero or one occurrence of
the patterns provided. May not contain / characters.+(pattern|pattern|pattern) Matches one or more occurrences of
the patterns provided. May not contain / characters.*(a|b|c) Matches zero or more occurrences of the patterns
provided. May not contain / characters.@(pattern|pat*|pat?erN) Matches exactly one of the patterns
provided. May not contain / characters.** If a "globstar" is alone in a path portion, then it
matches zero or more directories and subdirectories searching
for matches. It does not crawl symlinked directories, unless
{follow:true} is passed in the options object. A pattern
like a/b/** will only match a/b if it is a directory.
Follows 1 symbolic link if not the first item in the pattern,
or 0 if it is the first item, unless follow:true is set, in
which case it follows all symbolic links.[:class:] patterns are supported by this implementation, but
[=c=] and [.symbol.] style class patterns are not.
If a file or directory path portion has a . as the first
character, then it will not match any glob pattern unless that
pattern's corresponding path part also has a . as its first
character.
For example, the pattern a/.*/c would match the file at
a/.b/c. However the pattern a/*/c would not, because * does
not start with a dot character.
You can make glob treat dots as normal characters by setting
dot:true in the options.
If you set matchBase:true in the options, and the pattern has
no slashes in it, then it will seek for any file anywhere in the
tree with a matching basename. For example, *.js would match
test/simple/basic.js.
If no matching files are found, then an empty array is returned. This differs from the shell, where the pattern itself is returned. For example:
$ echo a*s*d*f
a*s*d*f
While strict compliance with the existing standards is a worthwhile goal, some discrepancies exist between node-glob and other implementations, and are intentional.
The double-star character ** is supported by default, unless
the noglobstar flag is set. This is supported in the manner of
bsdglob and bash 5, where ** only has special significance if
it is the only thing in a path part. That is, a/**/b will match
a/x/y/b, but a/**b will not.
Note that symlinked directories are not traversed as part of a
**, though their contents may match against subsequent portions
of the pattern. This prevents infinite loops and duplicates and
the like. You can force glob to traverse symlinks with ** by
setting {follow:true} in the options.
There is no equivalent of the nonull option. A pattern that
does not find any matches simply resolves to nothing. (An empty
array, immediately ended stream, etc.)
If brace expansion is not disabled, then it is performed before
any other interpretation of the glob pattern. Thus, a pattern
like +(a|{b),c)}, which would not be valid in bash or zsh, is
expanded first into the set of +(a|b) and +(a|c), and
those patterns are checked for validity. Since those two are
valid, matching proceeds.
The character class patterns [:class:] (posix standard named
classes) style class patterns are supported and unicode-aware,
but [=c=] (locale-specific character collation weight), and
[.symbol.] (collating symbol), are not.
Unlike Bash and zsh, repeated / are always coalesced into a
single path separator.
Previously, this module let you mark a pattern as a "comment" if
it started with a # character, or a "negated" pattern if it
started with a ! character.
These options were deprecated in version 5, and removed in version 6.
To specify things that should not match, use the ignore option.
Please only use forward-slashes in glob expressions.
Though windows uses either / or \ as its path separator, only
/ characters are used by this glob implementation. You must use
forward-slashes only in glob expressions. Back-slashes will
always be interpreted as escape characters, not path separators.
Results from absolute patterns such as /foo/* are mounted onto
the root setting using path.join. On windows, this will by
default result in /foo/* matching C:\foo\bar.txt.
To automatically coerce all \ characters to / in pattern
strings, thus making it impossible to escape literal glob
characters, you may set the windowsPathsNoEscape option to
true.
On posix systems, when a pattern starts with /, any cwd
option is ignored, and the traversal starts at /, plus any
non-magic path portions specified in the pattern.
On Windows systems, the behavior is similar, but the concept of an "absolute path" is somewhat more involved.
A UNC path may be used as the start of a pattern on Windows
platforms. For example, a pattern like: //?/x:/* will return
all file entries in the root of the x: drive. A pattern like
//ComputerName/Share/* will return all files in the associated
share.
UNC path roots are always compared case insensitively.
A pattern starting with a drive letter, like c:/*, will search
in that drive, regardless of any cwd option provided.
If the pattern starts with /, and is not a UNC path, and there
is an explicit cwd option set with a drive letter, then the
drive letter in the cwd is used as the root of the directory
traversal.
For example, glob('/tmp', { cwd: 'c:/any/thing' }) will return
['c:/tmp'] as the result.
If an explicit cwd option is not provided, and the pattern
starts with /, then the traversal will run on the root of the
drive provided as the cwd option. (That is, it is the result of
path.resolve('/').)
Glob searching, by its very nature, is susceptible to race conditions, since it relies on directory walking.
As a result, it is possible that a file that exists when glob looks for it may have been deleted or modified by the time it returns the result.
By design, this implementation caches all readdir calls that it makes, in order to cut down on system overhead. However, this also makes it even more susceptible to races, especially if the cache object is reused between glob calls.
Users are thus advised not to use a glob result as a guarantee of filesystem state in the face of rapid changes. For the vast majority of operations, this is never a problem.
man shman bash Pattern
Matchingman 3 fnmatchman 5 gitignoreGlob's logo was created by Tanya Brassie. Logo files can be found here.
The logo is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Any change to behavior (including bugfixes) must come with a test.
Patches that fail tests or reduce performance will be rejected.
# to run tests
npm test
# to re-generate test fixtures
npm run test-regen
# run the benchmarks
npm run bench
# to profile javascript
npm run prof
tl;dr
.gitignore files, use
globby.There are some other glob matcher libraries on npm, but these three are (in my opinion, as of 2023) the best.
full explanation
Every library reflects a set of opinions and priorities in the trade-offs it makes. Other than this library, I can personally recommend both globby and fast-glob, though they differ in their benefits and drawbacks.
Both have very nice APIs and are reasonably fast.
fast-glob is, as far as I am aware, the fastest glob
implementation in JavaScript today. However, there are many
cases where the choices that fast-glob makes in pursuit of
speed mean that its results differ from the results returned by
Bash and other sh-like shells, which may be surprising.
In my testing, fast-glob is around 10-20% faster than this
module when walking over 200k files nested 4 directories
deep1. However, there are some inconsistencies
with Bash matching behavior that this module does not suffer
from:
** only matches files, not directories.. path portions are not handled unless they appear at the
start of the pattern./!(<pattern>) will not match any files that start with
<pattern>, even if they do not match <pattern>. For
example, !(9).txt will not match 9999.txt./ characters.Globby exhibits all of the same pattern semantics as fast-glob, (as it is a wrapper around fast-glob) and is slightly slower than node-glob (by about 10-20% in the benchmark test set, or in other words, anywhere from 20-50% slower than fast-glob). However, it adds some API conveniences that may be worth the costs.
.gitignore and other ignore files.!
rather than using a separate ignore option).The priority of this module is "correctness" in the sense of performing a glob pattern expansion as faithfully as possible to the behavior of Bash and other sh-like shells, with as much speed as possible.
Note that prior versions of node-glob are not on this list.
Former versions of this module are far too slow for any cases
where performance matters at all, and were designed with APIs
that are extremely dated by current JavaScript standards.
[1]: In the cases where this module
returns results and fast-glob doesn't, it's even faster, of
course.
First number is time, smaller is better.
Second number is the count of results returned.
--- pattern: '**' ---
~~ sync ~~
node fast-glob sync 0m0.598s 200364
node globby sync 0m0.765s 200364
node current globSync mjs 0m0.683s 222656
node current glob syncStream 0m0.649s 222656
~~ async ~~
node fast-glob async 0m0.350s 200364
node globby async 0m0.509s 200364
node current glob async mjs 0m0.463s 222656
node current glob stream 0m0.411s 222656
--- pattern: '**/..' ---
~~ sync ~~
node fast-glob sync 0m0.486s 0
node globby sync 0m0.769s 200364
node current globSync mjs 0m0.564s 2242
node current glob syncStream 0m0.583s 2242
~~ async ~~
node fast-glob async 0m0.283s 0
node globby async 0m0.512s 200364
node current glob async mjs 0m0.299s 2242
node current glob stream 0m0.312s 2242
--- pattern: './**/0/**/0/**/0/**/0/**/*.txt' ---
~~ sync ~~
node fast-glob sync 0m0.490s 10
node globby sync 0m0.517s 10
node current globSync mjs 0m0.540s 10
node current glob syncStream 0m0.550s 10
~~ async ~~
node fast-glob async 0m0.290s 10
node globby async 0m0.296s 10
node current glob async mjs 0m0.278s 10
node current glob stream 0m0.302s 10
--- pattern: './**/[01]/**/[12]/**/[23]/**/[45]/**/*.txt' ---
~~ sync ~~
node fast-glob sync 0m0.500s 160
node globby sync 0m0.528s 160
node current globSync mjs 0m0.556s 160
node current glob syncStream 0m0.573s 160
~~ async ~~
node fast-glob async 0m0.283s 160
node globby async 0m0.301s 160
node current glob async mjs 0m0.306s 160
node current glob stream 0m0.322s 160
--- pattern: './**/0/**/0/**/*.txt' ---
~~ sync ~~
node fast-glob sync 0m0.502s 5230
node globby sync 0m0.527s 5230
node current globSync mjs 0m0.544s 5230
node current glob syncStream 0m0.557s 5230
~~ async ~~
node fast-glob async 0m0.285s 5230
node globby async 0m0.305s 5230
node current glob async mjs 0m0.304s 5230
node current glob stream 0m0.310s 5230
--- pattern: '**/*.txt' ---
~~ sync ~~
node fast-glob sync 0m0.580s 200023
node globby sync 0m0.771s 200023
node current globSync mjs 0m0.685s 200023
node current glob syncStream 0m0.649s 200023
~~ async ~~
node fast-glob async 0m0.349s 200023
node globby async 0m0.509s 200023
node current glob async mjs 0m0.427s 200023
node current glob stream 0m0.388s 200023
--- pattern: '{**/*.txt,**/?/**/*.txt,**/?/**/?/**/*.txt,**/?/**/?/**/?/**/*.txt,**/?/**/?/**/?/**/?/**/*.txt}' ---
~~ sync ~~
node fast-glob sync 0m0.589s 200023
node globby sync 0m0.771s 200023
node current globSync mjs 0m0.716s 200023
node current glob syncStream 0m0.684s 200023
~~ async ~~
node fast-glob async 0m0.351s 200023
node globby async 0m0.518s 200023
node current glob async mjs 0m0.462s 200023
node current glob stream 0m0.468s 200023
--- pattern: '**/5555/0000/*.txt' ---
~~ sync ~~
node fast-glob sync 0m0.496s 1000
node globby sync 0m0.519s 1000
node current globSync mjs 0m0.539s 1000
node current glob syncStream 0m0.567s 1000
~~ async ~~
node fast-glob async 0m0.285s 1000
node globby async 0m0.299s 1000
node current glob async mjs 0m0.305s 1000
node current glob stream 0m0.301s 1000
--- pattern: './**/0/**/../[01]/**/0/../**/0/*.txt' ---
~~ sync ~~
node fast-glob sync 0m0.484s 0
node globby sync 0m0.507s 0
node current globSync mjs 0m0.577s 4880
node current glob syncStream 0m0.586s 4880
~~ async ~~
node fast-glob async 0m0.280s 0
node globby async 0m0.298s 0
node current glob async mjs 0m0.327s 4880
node current glob stream 0m0.324s 4880
--- pattern: '**/????/????/????/????/*.txt' ---
~~ sync ~~
node fast-glob sync 0m0.547s 100000
node globby sync 0m0.673s 100000
node current globSync mjs 0m0.626s 100000
node current glob syncStream 0m0.618s 100000
~~ async ~~
node fast-glob async 0m0.315s 100000
node globby async 0m0.414s 100000
node current glob async mjs 0m0.366s 100000
node current glob stream 0m0.345s 100000
--- pattern: './{**/?{/**/?{/**/?{/**/?,,,,},,,,},,,,},,,}/**/*.txt' ---
~~ sync ~~
node fast-glob sync 0m0.588s 100000
node globby sync 0m0.670s 100000
node current globSync mjs 0m0.717s 200023
node current glob syncStream 0m0.687s 200023
~~ async ~~
node fast-glob async 0m0.343s 100000
node globby async 0m0.418s 100000
node current glob async mjs 0m0.519s 200023
node current glob stream 0m0.451s 200023
--- pattern: '**/!(0|9).txt' ---
~~ sync ~~
node fast-glob sync 0m0.573s 160023
node globby sync 0m0.731s 160023
node current globSync mjs 0m0.680s 180023
node current glob syncStream 0m0.659s 180023
~~ async ~~
node fast-glob async 0m0.345s 160023
node globby async 0m0.476s 160023
node current glob async mjs 0m0.427s 180023
node current glob stream 0m0.388s 180023
--- pattern: './{*/**/../{*/**/../{*/**/../{*/**/../{*/**,,,,},,,,},,,,},,,,},,,,}/*.txt' ---
~~ sync ~~
node fast-glob sync 0m0.483s 0
node globby sync 0m0.512s 0
node current globSync mjs 0m0.811s 200023
node current glob syncStream 0m0.773s 200023
~~ async ~~
node fast-glob async 0m0.280s 0
node globby async 0m0.299s 0
node current glob async mjs 0m0.617s 200023
node current glob stream 0m0.568s 200023
--- pattern: './*/**/../*/**/../*/**/../*/**/../*/**/../*/**/../*/**/../*/**/*.txt' ---
~~ sync ~~
node fast-glob sync 0m0.485s 0
node globby sync 0m0.507s 0
node current globSync mjs 0m0.759s 200023
node current glob syncStream 0m0.740s 200023
~~ async ~~
node fast-glob async 0m0.281s 0
node globby async 0m0.297s 0
node current glob async mjs 0m0.544s 200023
node current glob stream 0m0.464s 200023
--- pattern: './*/**/../*/**/../*/**/../*/**/../*/**/*.txt' ---
~~ sync ~~
node fast-glob sync 0m0.486s 0
node globby sync 0m0.513s 0
node current globSync mjs 0m0.734s 200023
node current glob syncStream 0m0.696s 200023
~~ async ~~
node fast-glob async 0m0.286s 0
node globby async 0m0.296s 0
node current glob async mjs 0m0.506s 200023
node current glob stream 0m0.483s 200023
--- pattern: './0/**/../1/**/../2/**/../3/**/../4/**/../5/**/../6/**/../7/**/*.txt' ---
~~ sync ~~
node fast-glob sync 0m0.060s 0
node globby sync 0m0.074s 0
node current globSync mjs 0m0.067s 0
node current glob syncStream 0m0.066s 0
~~ async ~~
node fast-glob async 0m0.060s 0
node globby async 0m0.075s 0
node current glob async mjs 0m0.066s 0
node current glob stream 0m0.067s 0
--- pattern: './**/?/**/?/**/?/**/?/**/*.txt' ---
~~ sync ~~
node fast-glob sync 0m0.568s 100000
node globby sync 0m0.651s 100000
node current globSync mjs 0m0.619s 100000
node current glob syncStream 0m0.617s 100000
~~ async ~~
node fast-glob async 0m0.332s 100000
node globby async 0m0.409s 100000
node current glob async mjs 0m0.372s 100000
node current glob stream 0m0.351s 100000
--- pattern: '**/*/**/*/**/*/**/*/**' ---
~~ sync ~~
node fast-glob sync 0m0.603s 200113
node globby sync 0m0.798s 200113
node current globSync mjs 0m0.730s 222137
node current glob syncStream 0m0.693s 222137
~~ async ~~
node fast-glob async 0m0.356s 200113
node globby async 0m0.525s 200113
node current glob async mjs 0m0.508s 222137
node current glob stream 0m0.455s 222137
--- pattern: './**/*/**/*/**/*/**/*/**/*.txt' ---
~~ sync ~~
node fast-glob sync 0m0.622s 200000
node globby sync 0m0.792s 200000
node current globSync mjs 0m0.722s 200000
node current glob syncStream 0m0.695s 200000
~~ async ~~
node fast-glob async 0m0.369s 200000
node globby async 0m0.527s 200000
node current glob async mjs 0m0.502s 200000
node current glob stream 0m0.481s 200000
--- pattern: '**/*.txt' ---
~~ sync ~~
node fast-glob sync 0m0.588s 200023
node globby sync 0m0.771s 200023
node current globSync mjs 0m0.684s 200023
node current glob syncStream 0m0.658s 200023
~~ async ~~
node fast-glob async 0m0.352s 200023
node globby async 0m0.516s 200023
node current glob async mjs 0m0.432s 200023
node current glob stream 0m0.384s 200023
--- pattern: './**/**/**/**/**/**/**/**/*.txt' ---
~~ sync ~~
node fast-glob sync 0m0.589s 200023
node globby sync 0m0.766s 200023
node current globSync mjs 0m0.682s 200023
node current glob syncStream 0m0.652s 200023
~~ async ~~
node fast-glob async 0m0.352s 200023
node globby async 0m0.523s 200023
node current glob async mjs 0m0.436s 200023
node current glob stream 0m0.380s 200023
--- pattern: '**/*/*.txt' ---
~~ sync ~~
node fast-glob sync 0m0.592s 200023
node globby sync 0m0.776s 200023
node current globSync mjs 0m0.691s 200023
node current glob syncStream 0m0.659s 200023
~~ async ~~
node fast-glob async 0m0.357s 200023
node globby async 0m0.513s 200023
node current glob async mjs 0m0.471s 200023
node current glob stream 0m0.424s 200023
--- pattern: '**/*/**/*.txt' ---
~~ sync ~~
node fast-glob sync 0m0.585s 200023
node globby sync 0m0.766s 200023
node current globSync mjs 0m0.694s 200023
node current glob syncStream 0m0.664s 200023
~~ async ~~
node fast-glob async 0m0.350s 200023
node globby async 0m0.514s 200023
node current glob async mjs 0m0.472s 200023
node current glob stream 0m0.424s 200023
--- pattern: '**/[0-9]/**/*.txt' ---
~~ sync ~~
node fast-glob sync 0m0.544s 100000
node globby sync 0m0.636s 100000
node current globSync mjs 0m0.626s 100000
node current glob syncStream 0m0.621s 100000
~~ async ~~
node fast-glob async 0m0.322s 100000
node globby async 0m0.404s 100000
node current glob async mjs 0m0.360s 100000
node current glob stream 0m0.352s 100000
FAQs
the most correct and second fastest glob implementation in JavaScript
We found that glob demonstrated a healthy version release cadence and project activity because the last version was released less than a year ago. It has 1 open source maintainer collaborating on the project.
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