find files by extension, *.html under a folder in nodejs

Question

find files by extension, *.html under a folder in nodejs

I'd like to find all *.html files in src folder and all its sub folders using nodejs. What is the best way to do it?

var folder = '/project1/src';
var extension = 'html';
var cb = function(err, results) {
   // results is an array of the files with path relative to the folder
   console.log(results);

}
// This function is what I am looking for. It has to recursively traverse all sub folders. 
findFiles(folder, extension, cb);

I think a lot developers should have great and tested solution and it is better to use it than writing one myself.

node.js

Answer 1

You can use OS help for this. Here is a cross-platform solution:

1. The bellow function uses ls and dir and does not search recursively but it has relative paths

var exec = require('child_process').exec;
function findFiles(folder,extension,cb){
    var command = "";
    if(/^win/.test(process.platform)){
        command = "dir /B "+folder+"\\*."+extension;
    }else{
        command = "ls -1 "+folder+"/*."+extension;
    }
    exec(command,function(err,stdout,stderr){
        if(err)
            return cb(err,null);
        //get rid of \r from windows
        stdout = stdout.replace(/\r/g,"");
        var files = stdout.split("\n");
        //remove last entry because it is empty
        files.splice(-1,1);
        cb(err,files);
    });
}

findFiles("folderName","html",function(err,files){
    console.log("files:",files);
})

2. The bellow function uses find and dir, searches recursively but on windows it has absolute paths

var exec = require('child_process').exec;
function findFiles(folder,extension,cb){
    var command = "";
    if(/^win/.test(process.platform)){
        command = "dir /B /s "+folder+"\\*."+extension;
    }else{
        command = 'find '+folder+' -name "*.'+extension+'"'
    }
    exec(command,function(err,stdout,stderr){
        if(err)
            return cb(err,null);
        //get rid of \r from windows
        stdout = stdout.replace(/\r/g,"");
        var files = stdout.split("\n");
        //remove last entry because it is empty
        files.splice(-1,1);
        cb(err,files);
    });
}

findFiles("folder","html",function(err,files){
    console.log("files:",files);
})

Answer 2

node.js, recursive simple function:

var path = require('path'), fs=require('fs');

function fromDir(startPath,filter){

    //console.log('Starting from dir '+startPath+'/');

    if (!fs.existsSync(startPath)){
        console.log("no dir ",startPath);
        return;
    }

    var files=fs.readdirSync(startPath);
    for(var i=0;i<files.length;i++){
        var filename=path.join(startPath,files[i]);
        var stat = fs.lstatSync(filename);
        if (stat.isDirectory()){
            fromDir(filename,filter); //recurse
        }
        else if (filename.indexOf(filter)>=0) {
            console.log('-- found: ',filename);
        };
    };
};

fromDir('../LiteScript','.html');

add RegExp if you want to get fancy, and a callback to make it generic.

var path = require('path'), fs=require('fs');

function fromDir(startPath,filter,callback){

    //console.log('Starting from dir '+startPath+'/');

    if (!fs.existsSync(startPath)){
        console.log("no dir ",startPath);
        return;
    }

    var files=fs.readdirSync(startPath);
    for(var i=0;i<files.length;i++){
        var filename=path.join(startPath,files[i]);
        var stat = fs.lstatSync(filename);
        if (stat.isDirectory()){
            fromDir(filename,filter,callback); //recurse
        }
        else if (filter.test(filename)) callback(filename);
    };
};

fromDir('../LiteScript',/\.html$/,function(filename){
    console.log('-- found: ',filename);
});

Answer 3

Based on Lucio's code, I made a module. It will return an away with all the files with specific extensions under the one. Just post it here in case anybody needs it.

var path = require('path'), 
    fs   = require('fs');


/**
 * Find all files recursively in specific folder with specific extension, e.g:
 * findFilesInDir('./project/src', '.html') ==> ['./project/src/a.html','./project/src/build/index.html']
 * @param  {String} startPath    Path relative to this file or other file which requires this files
 * @param  {String} filter       Extension name, e.g: '.html'
 * @return {Array}               Result files with path string in an array
 */
function findFilesInDir(startPath,filter){

    var results = [];

    if (!fs.existsSync(startPath)){
        console.log("no dir ",startPath);
        return;
    }

    var files=fs.readdirSync(startPath);
    for(var i=0;i<files.length;i++){
        var filename=path.join(startPath,files[i]);
        var stat = fs.lstatSync(filename);
        if (stat.isDirectory()){
            results = results.concat(findFilesInDir(filename,filter)); //recurse
        }
        else if (filename.indexOf(filter)>=0) {
            console.log('-- found: ',filename);
            results.push(filename);
        }
    }
    return results;
}

module.exports = findFilesInDir;