The 'walk' npm package is used for traversing directories and handling files within those directories. It provides a simple and efficient way to walk through a directory tree, allowing you to perform operations on files and directories as you encounter them.
Walking a directory
This feature allows you to walk through a directory and handle files and directories as they are encountered. The 'file' event is triggered for each file, and the 'directory' event is triggered for each directory.
const walk = require('walk');
const walker = walk.walk('/path/to/directory', {});
walker.on('file', function (root, fileStats, next) {
console.log('File: ' + fileStats.name);
next();
});
walker.on('directory', function (root, dirStats, next) {
console.log('Directory: ' + dirStats.name);
next();
});
walker.on('end', function () {
console.log('All files traversed.');
});Filtering files
This feature allows you to filter out certain directories from being walked. In this example, the 'node_modules' and '.git' directories are excluded from the traversal.
const walk = require('walk');
const walker = walk.walk('/path/to/directory', {
filters: ['node_modules', '.git']
});
walker.on('file', function (root, fileStats, next) {
console.log('File: ' + fileStats.name);
next();
});
walker.on('end', function () {
console.log('All files traversed.');
});Handling errors
This feature allows you to handle errors that occur during the directory traversal. The 'errors' event is triggered when an error is encountered, and you can log or handle the error as needed.
const walk = require('walk');
const walker = walk.walk('/path/to/directory', {});
walker.on('file', function (root, fileStats, next) {
console.log('File: ' + fileStats.name);
next();
});
walker.on('errors', function (root, nodeStatsArray, next) {
nodeStatsArray.forEach(function (n) {
console.error('Error: ' + n.error.message);
});
next();
});
walker.on('end', function () {
console.log('All files traversed.');
});The 'fs-extra' package extends the native Node.js 'fs' module with additional methods and functionality, including methods for walking directories. It provides a more comprehensive set of file system utilities compared to 'walk'.
The 'klaw' package is a Node.js file system walker that provides a stream-based API for traversing directories. It is similar to 'walk' but offers a more modern and flexible approach with support for streams.
The 'readdirp' package is a recursive version of 'fs.readdir' with additional features such as filtering and streaming. It is similar to 'walk' but provides a more powerful and flexible API for reading directories recursively.
Consider using @root/walk instead.
I created walk quite literally a decade ago, in the Node v0.x days.
Back then using an EventEmitter seemed like the thing to do. Nowadays,
it seems a bit overkill for the simple task of walking over directories.
There's nothing wrong with walk - it's about the same as it was 10 years ago -
however, at only 50 lines of code long, @root/walk is much simpler and much faster.
| a Root project
nodejs walk implementation.
This is somewhat of a port python's os.walk, but using Node.JS conventions.
As few file descriptors are opened at a time as possible. This is particularly well suited for single hard disks which are not flash or solid state.
npm install --save walk
'use strict';
var walk = require('walk');
var fs = require('fs');
var walker;
var options = {};
walker = walk.walk('/tmp', options);
walker.on('file', function (root, fileStats, next) {
fs.readFile(fileStats.name, function () {
// doStuff
next();
});
});
walker.on('errors', function (root, nodeStatsArray, next) {
next();
});
walker.on('end', function () {
console.log('all done');
});
All single event callbacks are in the form of function (root, stat, next) {}.
All multiple event callbacks callbacks are in the form of function (root, stats, next) {}, except names which is an array of strings.
All error event callbacks are in the form function (root, stat/stats, next) {}.
stat.error contains the error.
namesdirectorydirectoriesfilefilesendnodeError (stat failed)directoryError (stat succedded, but readdir failed)errors (a collection of any errors encountered)A typical stat event looks like this:
{ dev: 16777223,
mode: 33188,
nlink: 1,
uid: 501,
gid: 20,
rdev: 0,
blksize: 4096,
ino: 49868100,
size: 5617,
blocks: 16,
atime: Mon Jan 05 2015 18:18:10 GMT-0700 (MST),
mtime: Thu Sep 25 2014 21:21:28 GMT-0600 (MDT),
ctime: Thu Sep 25 2014 21:21:28 GMT-0600 (MDT),
birthtime: Thu Sep 25 2014 21:21:28 GMT-0600 (MDT),
name: 'README.md',
type: 'file' }
Both Asynchronous and Synchronous versions are provided.
'use strict';
var walk = require('walk');
var fs = require('fs');
var options;
var walker;
options = {
followLinks: false,
// directories with these keys will be skipped
filters: ['Temp', '_Temp'],
};
walker = walk.walk('/tmp', options);
// OR
// walker = walk.walkSync("/tmp", options);
walker.on('names', function (root, nodeNamesArray) {
nodeNamesArray.sort(function (a, b) {
if (a > b) return 1;
if (a < b) return -1;
return 0;
});
});
walker.on('directories', function (root, dirStatsArray, next) {
// dirStatsArray is an array of `stat` objects with the additional attributes
// * type
// * error
// * name
next();
});
walker.on('file', function (root, fileStats, next) {
fs.readFile(fileStats.name, function () {
// doStuff
next();
});
});
walker.on('errors', function (root, nodeStatsArray, next) {
next();
});
walker.on('end', function () {
console.log('all done');
});
Note: You can't use EventEmitter if you want truly synchronous walker
(although it's synchronous under the hood, it appears not to be due to the use of process.nextTick()).
Instead you must use options.listeners for truly synchronous walker.
Although the sync version uses all of the fs.readSync, fs.readdirSync, and other sync methods,
I don't think I can prevent the process.nextTick() that EventEmitter calls.
(function () {
'use strict';
var walk = require('walk');
var fs = require('fs');
var options;
var walker;
// To be truly synchronous in the emitter and maintain a compatible api,
// the listeners must be listed before the object is created
options = {
listeners: {
names: function (root, nodeNamesArray) {
nodeNamesArray.sort(function (a, b) {
if (a > b) return 1;
if (a < b) return -1;
return 0;
});
},
directories: function (root, dirStatsArray, next) {
// dirStatsArray is an array of `stat` objects with the additional attributes
// * type
// * error
// * name
next();
},
file: function (root, fileStats, next) {
fs.readFile(fileStats.name, function () {
// doStuff
next();
});
},
errors: function (root, nodeStatsArray, next) {
next();
},
},
};
walker = walk.walkSync('/tmp', options);
console.log('all done');
})();
Emitted Values
on('XYZ', function(root, stats, next) {})
root - the containing the files to be inspected
stats[Array] - a single stats object or an array with some added attributes
next - no more files will be read until this is called
Single Events - fired immediately
end - No files, dirs, etc left to inspect
directoryError - Error when fstat succeeded, but reading path failed (Probably due to permissions).
nodeError - Error fstat did not succeeded.
node - a stats object for a node of any type
file - includes links when followLinks is true
directory - NOTE you could get a recursive loop if followLinks and a directory links to its parent
symbolicLink - always empty when followLinks is true
blockDevice
characterDevice
FIFO
socket
Events with Array Arguments - fired after all files in the dir have been stated
names - before any stat takes place. Useful for sorting and filtering.
strings, not stat objectsnext argument is a nooperrors - errors encountered by fs.stat when reading ndes in a directory
nodes - an array of stats of any type
files
directories - modification of this array - sorting, removing, etc - affects traversal
symbolicLinks
blockDevices
characterDevices
FIFOs
sockets
Warning beware of infinite loops when followLinks is true (using walk-recurse varient).
Tested on my /System containing 59,490 (+ self) directories (and lots of files).
The size of the text output was 6mb.
find:
time bash -c "find /System -type d | wc"
59491 97935 6262916
real 2m27.114s
user 0m1.193s
sys 0m14.859s
find.js:
Note that find.js omits the start directory
time bash -c "node examples/find.js /System -type d | wc"
59490 97934 6262908
# Test 1
real 2m52.273s
user 0m20.374s
sys 0m27.800s
# Test 2
real 2m23.725s
user 0m18.019s
sys 0m23.202s
# Test 3
real 2m50.077s
user 0m17.661s
sys 0m24.008s
In conclusion node.js asynchronous walk is much slower than regular "find".
node-walk is available under the following licenses:
Copyright 2011 - Present AJ ONeal
FAQs
A node port of python's os.walk
The npm package walk receives a total of 579,882 weekly downloads. As such, walk popularity was classified as popular.
We found that walk demonstrated a not healthy version release cadence and project activity because the last version was released a year ago. It has 1 open source maintainer collaborating on the project.
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