[node.js] Node.js fs.readdir recursive directory search

Any ideas on an async directory search using fs.readdir? I realize that we could introduce recursion and call the read directory function with the next directory to read, but I'm a little worried about it not being async...

Any ideas? I've looked at node-walk which is great, but doesn't give me just the files in an array, like readdir does. Although

Looking for output like...

['file1.txt', 'file2.txt', 'dir/file3.txt']

This question is related to node.js readdir

The answer is


qwtel's answer variant, in TypeScript

import { resolve } from 'path';
import { readdir } from 'fs/promises';

async function* getFiles(dir: string): AsyncGenerator<string> {
    const entries = await readdir(dir, { withFileTypes: true });
    for (const entry of entries) {
        const res = resolve(dir, entry.name);
        if (entry.isDirectory()) {
            yield* getFiles(res);
        } else {
            yield res;
        }
    }
}

Using Promises (Q) to solve this in a Functional style:

var fs = require('fs'),
    fsPath = require('path'),
    Q = require('q');

var walk = function (dir) {
  return Q.ninvoke(fs, 'readdir', dir).then(function (files) {

    return Q.all(files.map(function (file) {

      file = fsPath.join(dir, file);
      return Q.ninvoke(fs, 'lstat', file).then(function (stat) {

        if (stat.isDirectory()) {
          return walk(file);
        } else {
          return [file];
        }
      });
    }));
  }).then(function (files) {
    return files.reduce(function (pre, cur) {
      return pre.concat(cur);
    });
  });
};

It returns a promise of an array, so you can use it as:

walk('/home/mypath').then(function (files) { console.log(files); });

The recursive-readdir module has this functionality.


Standalone promise implementation

I am using the when.js promise library in this example.

var fs = require('fs')
, path = require('path')
, when = require('when')
, nodefn = require('when/node/function');

function walk (directory, includeDir) {
    var results = [];
    return when.map(nodefn.call(fs.readdir, directory), function(file) {
        file = path.join(directory, file);
        return nodefn.call(fs.stat, file).then(function(stat) {
            if (stat.isFile()) { return results.push(file); }
            if (includeDir) { results.push(file + path.sep); }
            return walk(file, includeDir).then(function(filesInDir) {
                results = results.concat(filesInDir);
            });
        });
    }).then(function() {
        return results;
    });
};

walk(__dirname).then(function(files) {
    console.log(files);
}).otherwise(function(error) {
    console.error(error.stack || error);
});

I've included an optional parameter includeDir which will include directories in the file listing if set to true.


This is my answer. Hope it can help somebody.

My focus is to make the searching routine can stop at anywhere, and for a file found, tells the relative depth to the original path.

var _fs = require('fs');
var _path = require('path');
var _defer = process.nextTick;

// next() will pop the first element from an array and return it, together with
// the recursive depth and the container array of the element. i.e. If the first
// element is an array, it'll be dug into recursively. But if the first element is
// an empty array, it'll be simply popped and ignored.
// e.g. If the original array is [1,[2],3], next() will return [1,0,[[2],3]], and
// the array becomes [[2],3]. If the array is [[[],[1,2],3],4], next() will return
// [1,2,[2]], and the array becomes [[[2],3],4].
// There is an infinity loop `while(true) {...}`, because I optimized the code to
// make it a non-recursive version.
var next = function(c) {
    var a = c;
    var n = 0;
    while (true) {
        if (a.length == 0) return null;
        var x = a[0];
        if (x.constructor == Array) {
            if (x.length > 0) {
                a = x;
                ++n;
            } else {
                a.shift();
                a = c;
                n = 0;
            }
        } else {
            a.shift();
            return [x, n, a];
        }
    }
}

// cb is the callback function, it have four arguments:
//    1) an error object if any exception happens;
//    2) a path name, may be a directory or a file;
//    3) a flag, `true` means directory, and `false` means file;
//    4) a zero-based number indicates the depth relative to the original path.
// cb should return a state value to tell whether the searching routine should
// continue: `true` means it should continue; `false` means it should stop here;
// but for a directory, there is a third state `null`, means it should do not
// dig into the directory and continue searching the next file.
var ls = function(path, cb) {
    // use `_path.resolve()` to correctly handle '.' and '..'.
    var c = [ _path.resolve(path) ];
    var f = function() {
        var p = next(c);
        p && s(p);
    };
    var s = function(p) {
        _fs.stat(p[0], function(err, ss) {
            if (err) {
                // use `_defer()` to turn a recursive call into a non-recursive call.
                cb(err, p[0], null, p[1]) && _defer(f);
            } else if (ss.isDirectory()) {
                var y = cb(null, p[0], true, p[1]);
                if (y) r(p);
                else if (y == null) _defer(f);
            } else {
                cb(null, p[0], false, p[1]) && _defer(f);
            }
        });
    };
    var r = function(p) {
        _fs.readdir(p[0], function(err, files) {
            if (err) {
                cb(err, p[0], true, p[1]) && _defer(f);
            } else {
                // not use `Array.prototype.map()` because we can make each change on site.
                for (var i = 0; i < files.length; i++) {
                    files[i] = _path.join(p[0], files[i]);
                }
                p[2].unshift(files);
                _defer(f);
            }
        });
    }
    _defer(f);
};

var printfile = function(err, file, isdir, n) {
    if (err) {
        console.log('-->   ' + ('[' + n + '] ') + file + ': ' + err);
        return true;
    } else {
        console.log('... ' + ('[' + n + '] ') + (isdir ? 'D' : 'F') + ' ' + file);
        return true;
    }
};

var path = process.argv[2];
ls(path, printfile);

Here is a simple synchronous recursive solution

const fs = require('fs')

const getFiles = path => {
    const files = []
    for (const file of fs.readdirSync(path)) {
        const fullPath = path + '/' + file
        if(fs.lstatSync(fullPath).isDirectory())
            getFiles(fullPath).forEach(x => files.push(file + '/' + x))
        else files.push(file)
    }
    return files
}

Usage:

const files = getFiles(process.cwd())

console.log(files)

You could write it asynchronously, but there is no need. Just make sure that the input directory exists and is accessible.


This is how I use the nodejs fs.readdir function to recursively search a directory.

const fs = require('fs');
const mime = require('mime-types');
const readdirRecursivePromise = path => {
    return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
        fs.readdir(path, (err, directoriesPaths) => {
            if (err) {
                reject(err);
            } else {
                if (directoriesPaths.indexOf('.DS_Store') != -1) {
                    directoriesPaths.splice(directoriesPaths.indexOf('.DS_Store'), 1);
                }
                directoriesPaths.forEach((e, i) => {
                    directoriesPaths[i] = statPromise(`${path}/${e}`);
                });
                Promise.all(directoriesPaths).then(out => {
                    resolve(out);
                }).catch(err => {
                    reject(err);
                });
            }
        });
    });
};
const statPromise = path => {
    return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
        fs.stat(path, (err, stats) => {
            if (err) {
                reject(err);
            } else {
                if (stats.isDirectory()) {
                    readdirRecursivePromise(path).then(out => {
                        resolve(out);
                    }).catch(err => {
                        reject(err);
                    });
                } else if (stats.isFile()) {
                    resolve({
                        'path': path,
                        'type': mime.lookup(path)
                    });
                } else {
                    reject(`Error parsing path: ${path}`);
                }
            }
        });
    });
};
const flatten = (arr, result = []) => {
    for (let i = 0, length = arr.length; i < length; i++) {
        const value = arr[i];
        if (Array.isArray(value)) {
            flatten(value, result);
        } else {
            result.push(value);
        }
    }
    return result;
};

Let's say you have a path called '/database' in your node projects root. Once this promise is resolved, it should spit out an array of every file under '/database'.

readdirRecursivePromise('database').then(out => {
    console.log(flatten(out));
}).catch(err => {
    console.log(err);
});

This one uses the maximum amount of new, buzzwordy features available in node 8, including Promises, util/promisify, destructuring, async-await, map+reduce and more, making your co-workers scratch their heads as they try to figure out what is going on.

Node 8+

No external dependencies.

const { promisify } = require('util');
const { resolve } = require('path');
const fs = require('fs');
const readdir = promisify(fs.readdir);
const stat = promisify(fs.stat);

async function getFiles(dir) {
  const subdirs = await readdir(dir);
  const files = await Promise.all(subdirs.map(async (subdir) => {
    const res = resolve(dir, subdir);
    return (await stat(res)).isDirectory() ? getFiles(res) : res;
  }));
  return files.reduce((a, f) => a.concat(f), []);
}

Usage

getFiles(__dirname)
  .then(files => console.log(files))
  .catch(e => console.error(e));

Node 10.10+

Updated for node 10+ with even more whizbang:

const { resolve } = require('path');
const { readdir } = require('fs').promises;

async function getFiles(dir) {
  const dirents = await readdir(dir, { withFileTypes: true });
  const files = await Promise.all(dirents.map((dirent) => {
    const res = resolve(dir, dirent.name);
    return dirent.isDirectory() ? getFiles(res) : res;
  }));
  return Array.prototype.concat(...files);
}

Note that starting with node 11.15.0 you can use files.flat() instead of Array.prototype.concat(...files) to flatten the files array.

Node 11+

If you want to blow everybody's head up completely, you can use the following version using async iterators. In addition to being really cool, it also allows consumers to pull results one-at-a-time, making it better suited for really large directories.

const { resolve } = require('path');
const { readdir } = require('fs').promises;

async function* getFiles(dir) {
  const dirents = await readdir(dir, { withFileTypes: true });
  for (const dirent of dirents) {
    const res = resolve(dir, dirent.name);
    if (dirent.isDirectory()) {
      yield* getFiles(res);
    } else {
      yield res;
    }
  }
}

Usage has changed because the return type is now an async iterator instead of a promise

;(async () => {
  for await (const f of getFiles('.')) {
    console.log(f);
  }
})()

In case somebody is interested, I've written more about async iterators here: https://qwtel.com/posts/software/async-generators-in-the-wild/


Whoever wants a synchronous alternative to the accepted answer (I know I did):

var fs = require('fs');
var path = require('path');
var walk = function(dir) {
    let results = [], err = null, list;
    try {
        list = fs.readdirSync(dir)
    } catch(e) {
        err = e.toString();
    }
    if (err) return err;
    var i = 0;
    return (function next() {
        var file = list[i++];

        if(!file) return results;
        file = path.resolve(dir, file);
        let stat = fs.statSync(file);
        if (stat && stat.isDirectory()) {
          let res = walk(file);
          results = results.concat(res);
          return next();
        } else {
          results.push(file);
           return next();
        }

    })();

};

console.log(
    walk("./")
)

I must add the Promise-based sander library to the list.

 var sander = require('sander');
 sander.lsr(directory).then( filenames => { console.log(filenames) } );

klaw and klaw-sync are worth considering for this sort of thing. These were part of node-fs-extra.


Check out the final-fs library. It provides a readdirRecursive function:

ffs.readdirRecursive(dirPath, true, 'my/initial/path')
    .then(function (files) {
        // in the `files` variable you've got all the files
    })
    .otherwise(function (err) {
        // something went wrong
    });

Just in case anyone finds it useful, I also put together a synchronous version.

var walk = function(dir) {
    var results = [];
    var list = fs.readdirSync(dir);
    list.forEach(function(file) {
        file = dir + '/' + file;
        var stat = fs.statSync(file);
        if (stat && stat.isDirectory()) { 
            /* Recurse into a subdirectory */
            results = results.concat(walk(file));
        } else { 
            /* Is a file */
            results.push(file);
        }
    });
    return results;
}

Tip: To use less resources when filtering. Filter within this function itself. E.g. Replace results.push(file); with below code. Adjust as required:

    file_type = file.split(".").pop();
    file_name = file.split(/(\\|\/)/g).pop();
    if (file_type == "json") results.push(file);

Yet another answer, but this time using TypeScript:

_x000D_
_x000D_
/**_x000D_
 * Recursively walk a directory asynchronously and obtain all file names (with full path)._x000D_
 *_x000D_
 * @param dir Folder name you want to recursively process_x000D_
 * @param done Callback function, returns all files with full path._x000D_
 * @param filter Optional filter to specify which files to include, _x000D_
 *   e.g. for json files: (f: string) => /.json$/.test(f)_x000D_
 */_x000D_
const walk = (_x000D_
  dir: string,_x000D_
  done: (err: Error | null, results ? : string[]) => void,_x000D_
  filter ? : (f: string) => boolean_x000D_
) => {_x000D_
  let results: string[] = [];_x000D_
  fs.readdir(dir, (err: Error, list: string[]) => {_x000D_
    if (err) {_x000D_
      return done(err);_x000D_
    }_x000D_
    let pending = list.length;_x000D_
    if (!pending) {_x000D_
      return done(null, results);_x000D_
    }_x000D_
    list.forEach((file: string) => {_x000D_
      file = path.resolve(dir, file);_x000D_
      fs.stat(file, (err2, stat) => {_x000D_
        if (stat && stat.isDirectory()) {_x000D_
          walk(file, (err3, res) => {_x000D_
            if (res) {_x000D_
              results = results.concat(res);_x000D_
            }_x000D_
            if (!--pending) {_x000D_
              done(null, results);_x000D_
            }_x000D_
          }, filter);_x000D_
        } else {_x000D_
          if (typeof filter === 'undefined' || (filter && filter(file))) {_x000D_
            results.push(file);_x000D_
          }_x000D_
          if (!--pending) {_x000D_
            done(null, results);_x000D_
          }_x000D_
        }_x000D_
      });_x000D_
    });_x000D_
  });_x000D_
};
_x000D_
_x000D_
_x000D_


Another nice npm package is glob.

npm install glob

It is very powerful and should cover all your recursing needs.

Edit:

I actually wasn't perfectly happy with glob, so I created readdirp.

I'm very confident that its API makes finding files and directories recursively and applying specific filters very easy.

Read through its documentation to get a better idea of what it does and install via:

npm install readdirp


Here's yet another implementation. None of the above solutions have any limiters, and so if your directory structure is large, they're all going to thrash and eventually run out of resources.

var async = require('async');
var fs = require('fs');
var resolve = require('path').resolve;

var scan = function(path, concurrency, callback) {
    var list = [];

    var walker = async.queue(function(path, callback) {
        fs.stat(path, function(err, stats) {
            if (err) {
                return callback(err);
            } else {
                if (stats.isDirectory()) {
                    fs.readdir(path, function(err, files) {
                        if (err) {
                            callback(err);
                        } else {
                            for (var i = 0; i < files.length; i++) {
                                walker.push(resolve(path, files[i]));
                            }
                            callback();
                        }
                    });
                } else {
                    list.push(path);
                    callback();
                }
            }
        });
    }, concurrency);

    walker.push(path);

    walker.drain = function() {
        callback(list);
    }
};

Using a concurrency of 50 works pretty well, and is almost as fast as simpler implementations for small directory structures.


Another simple and helpful one

function walkDir(root) {
    const stat = fs.statSync(root);

    if (stat.isDirectory()) {
        const dirs = fs.readdirSync(root).filter(item => !item.startsWith('.'));
        let results = dirs.map(sub => walkDir(`${root}/${sub}`));
        return [].concat(...results);
    } else {
        return root;
    }
}

With Recursion

var fs = require('fs')
var path = process.cwd()
var files = []

var getFiles = function(path, files){
    fs.readdirSync(path).forEach(function(file){
        var subpath = path + '/' + file;
        if(fs.lstatSync(subpath).isDirectory()){
            getFiles(subpath, files);
        } else {
            files.push(path + '/' + file);
        }
    });     
}

Calling

getFiles(path, files)
console.log(files) // will log all files in directory

Async

const fs = require('fs')
const path = require('path')

const readdir = (p, done, a = [], i = 0) => fs.readdir(p, (e, d = []) =>
  d.map(f => readdir(a[a.push(path.join(p, f)) - 1], () =>
    ++i == d.length && done(a), a)).length || done(a))

readdir(__dirname, console.log)

Sync

const fs = require('fs')
const path = require('path')

const readdirSync = (p, a = []) => {
  if (fs.statSync(p).isDirectory())
    fs.readdirSync(p).map(f => readdirSync(a[a.push(path.join(p, f)) - 1], a))
  return a
}

console.log(readdirSync(__dirname))

Async readable

function readdir (currentPath, done, allFiles = [], i = 0) {
  fs.readdir(currentPath, function (e, directoryFiles = []) {
    if (!directoryFiles.length)
      return done(allFiles)
    directoryFiles.map(function (file) {
      var joinedPath = path.join(currentPath, file)
      allFiles.push(joinedPath)
      readdir(joinedPath, function () {
        i = i + 1
        if (i == directoryFiles.length)
          done(allFiles)}
      , allFiles)
    })
  })
}

readdir(__dirname, console.log)

Note: both versions will follow symlinks (same as the original fs.readdir)


Using bluebird promise.coroutine:

let promise = require('bluebird'),
    PC = promise.coroutine,
    fs = promise.promisifyAll(require('fs'));
let getFiles = PC(function*(dir){
    let files = [];
    let contents = yield fs.readdirAsync(dir);
    for (let i = 0, l = contents.length; i < l; i ++) {
        //to remove dot(hidden) files on MAC
        if (/^\..*/.test(contents[i])) contents.splice(i, 1);
    }
    for (let i = 0, l = contents.length; i < l; i ++) {
        let content = path.resolve(dir, contents[i]);
        let contentStat = yield fs.statAsync(content);
        if (contentStat && contentStat.isDirectory()) {
            let subFiles = yield getFiles(content);
            files = files.concat(subFiles);
        } else {
            files.push(content);
        }
    }
    return files;
});
//how to use
//easy error handling in one place
getFiles(your_dir).then(console.log).catch(err => console.log(err));

Because everyone should write his own, I made one.

walk(dir, cb, endCb) cb(file) endCb(err | null)

DIRTY

module.exports = walk;

function walk(dir, cb, endCb) {
  var fs = require('fs');
  var path = require('path');

  fs.readdir(dir, function(err, files) {
    if (err) {
      return endCb(err);
    }

    var pending = files.length;
    if (pending === 0) {
      endCb(null);
    }
    files.forEach(function(file) {
      fs.stat(path.join(dir, file), function(err, stats) {
        if (err) {
          return endCb(err)
        }

        if (stats.isDirectory()) {
          walk(path.join(dir, file), cb, function() {
            pending--;
            if (pending === 0) {
              endCb(null);
            }
          });
        } else {
          cb(path.join(dir, file));
          pending--;
          if (pending === 0) {
            endCb(null);
          }
        }
      })
    });

  });
}

There is a new module called cup-readdir that recursively searches directories very fast. It uses asynchronous promises and outperforms many popular modules when dealing with deep directory structures.

It can return all files in an array and sort them by their properties, but lacks features like file filtering and entering symlinked directories. This could be useful for large projects where you simply want to get every file from a directory. Here is a link to their project homepage.


Simple, Async Promise Based


const fs = require('fs/promises');
const getDirRecursive = async (dir) => {
    try {
        const items = await fs.readdir(dir);
        let files = [];
        for (const item of items) {
            if ((await fs.lstat(`${dir}/${item}`)).isDirectory()) files = [...files, ...(await getDirRecursive(`${dir}/${item}`))];
            else files.push({file: item, path: `${dir}/${item}`, parents: dir.split("/")});
        }
        return files;
    } catch (e) {
        return e
    }
};

Usage: await getDirRecursive("./public");


here is the complete working code. As per your requirement. you can get all files and folders recursively.

var recur = function(dir) {
            fs.readdir(dir,function(err,list){
                list.forEach(function(file){
                    var file2 = path.resolve(dir, file);
                    fs.stat(file2,function(err,stats){
                        if(stats.isDirectory()) {
                            recur(file2);
                        }
                        else {
                            console.log(file2);
                        }
                    })
                })
            });
        };
        recur(path);

in path give your directory path in which you want to search like "c:\test"


A library called Filehound is another option. It will recursively search a given directory (working directory by default). It supports various filters, callbacks, promises and sync searches.

For example, search the current working directory for all files (using callbacks):

const Filehound = require('filehound');

Filehound.create()
.find((err, files) => {
    if (err) {
        return console.error(`error: ${err}`);
    }
    console.log(files); // array of files
});

Or promises and specifying a specific directory:

const Filehound = require('filehound');

Filehound.create()
.paths("/tmp")
.find()
.each(console.log);

Consult the docs for further use cases and examples of usage: https://github.com/nspragg/filehound

Disclaimer: I'm the author.


Use node-dir to produce exactly the output you like

var dir = require('node-dir');

dir.files(__dirname, function(err, files) {
  if (err) throw err;
  console.log(files);
  //we have an array of files now, so now we can iterate that array
  files.forEach(function(path) {
    action(null, path);
  })
});

I loved the answer from chjj above and would not have been able to create my version of the parallel loop without that start.

var fs = require("fs");

var tree = function(dir, done) {
  var results = {
        "path": dir
        ,"children": []
      };
  fs.readdir(dir, function(err, list) {
    if (err) { return done(err); }
    var pending = list.length;
    if (!pending) { return done(null, results); }
    list.forEach(function(file) {
      fs.stat(dir + '/' + file, function(err, stat) {
        if (stat && stat.isDirectory()) {
          tree(dir + '/' + file, function(err, res) {
            results.children.push(res);
            if (!--pending){ done(null, results); }
          });
        } else {
          results.children.push({"path": dir + "/" + file});
          if (!--pending) { done(null, results); }
        }
      });
    });
  });
};

module.exports = tree;

I created a Gist as well. Comments welcome. I am still starting out in the NodeJS realm so that is one way I hope to learn more.


check out loaddir https://npmjs.org/package/loaddir

npm install loaddir

  loaddir = require('loaddir')

  allJavascripts = []
  loaddir({
    path: __dirname + '/public/javascripts',
    callback: function(){  allJavascripts.push(this.relativePath + this.baseName); }
  })

You can use fileName instead of baseName if you need the extension as well.

An added bonus is that it will watch the files as well and call the callback again. There are tons of configuration options to make it extremely flexible.

I just remade the guard gem from ruby using loaddir in a short while


I recommend using node-glob to accomplish that task.

var glob = require( 'glob' );  

glob( 'dirname/**/*.js', function( err, files ) {
  console.log( files );
});

A. Have a look at the file module. It has a function called walk:

file.walk(start, callback)

Navigates a file tree, calling callback for each directory, passing in (null, dirPath, dirs, files).

This may be for you! And yes, it is async. However, I think you would have to aggregate the full path's yourself, if you needed them.

B. An alternative, and even one of my favourites: use the unix find for that. Why do something again, that has already been programmed? Maybe not exactly what you need, but still worth checking out:

var execFile = require('child_process').execFile;
execFile('find', [ 'somepath/' ], function(err, stdout, stderr) {
  var file_list = stdout.split('\n');
  /* now you've got a list with full path file names */
});

Find has a nice build-in caching mechanism that makes subsequent searches very fast, as long as only few folder have changed.


I modified Trevor Senior's Promise based answer to work with Bluebird

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

var readdirAsync = Promise.promisify(fs.readdir);
var statAsync = Promise.promisify(fs.stat);
function walkFiles (directory) {
    var results = [];
    return readdirAsync(directory).map(function(file) {
        file = path.join(directory, file);
        return statAsync(file).then(function(stat) {
            if (stat.isFile()) {
                return results.push(file);
            }
            return walkFiles(file).then(function(filesInDir) {
                results = results.concat(filesInDir);
            });
        });
    }).then(function() {
        return results;
    });
}

//use
walkDir(__dirname).then(function(files) {
    console.log(files);
}).catch(function(e) {
    console.error(e); {
});

I've coded this recently, and thought it would make sense to share this here. The code makes use of the async library.

var fs = require('fs');
var async = require('async');

var scan = function(dir, suffix, callback) {
  fs.readdir(dir, function(err, files) {
    var returnFiles = [];
    async.each(files, function(file, next) {
      var filePath = dir + '/' + file;
      fs.stat(filePath, function(err, stat) {
        if (err) {
          return next(err);
        }
        if (stat.isDirectory()) {
          scan(filePath, suffix, function(err, results) {
            if (err) {
              return next(err);
            }
            returnFiles = returnFiles.concat(results);
            next();
          })
        }
        else if (stat.isFile()) {
          if (file.indexOf(suffix, file.length - suffix.length) !== -1) {
            returnFiles.push(filePath);
          }
          next();
        }
      });
    }, function(err) {
      callback(err, returnFiles);
    });
  });
};

You can use it like this:

scan('/some/dir', '.ext', function(err, files) {
  // Do something with files that ends in '.ext'.
  console.log(files);
});

Promise based recursive solution in TypeScript using Array.flat() for handling nested returns.

import { resolve } from 'path'
import { Dirent } from 'fs'
import * as fs from 'fs'

function getFiles(root: string): Promise<string[]> {
 return fs.promises
   .readdir(root, { withFileTypes: true })
   .then(dirents => {
      const mapToPath = (r: string) => (dirent: Dirent): string => resolve(r, dirent.name)
      const directoryPaths = dirents.filter(a => a.isDirectory()).map(mapToPath(root))
      const filePaths = dirents.filter(a => a.isFile()).map(mapToPath(root))

     return Promise.all<string>([
       ...directoryPaths.map(a => getFiles(a, include)).flat(),
       ...filePaths.map(a => Promise.resolve(a))
     ]).then(a => a.flat())
  })
}

For Node 10.3+, here is a for-await solution:

#!/usr/bin/env node

const FS = require('fs');
const Util = require('util');
const readDir = Util.promisify(FS.readdir);
const Path = require('path');

async function* readDirR(path) {
    const entries = await readDir(path,{withFileTypes:true});
    for(let entry of entries) {
        const fullPath = Path.join(path,entry.name);
        if(entry.isDirectory()) {
            yield* readDirR(fullPath);
        } else {
            yield fullPath;
        }
    }
}

async function main() {
    const start = process.hrtime.bigint();
    for await(const file of readDirR('/mnt/home/media/Unsorted')) {
        console.log(file);
    }
    console.log((process.hrtime.bigint()-start)/1000000n);
}

main().catch(err => {
    console.error(err);
});

The benefit of this solution is that you can start processing the results immediately; e.g. it takes 12 seconds to read all the files in my media directory, but if I do it this way I can get the first result within a few milliseconds.


If you want to use an npm package, wrench is pretty good.

var wrench = require("wrench");

var files = wrench.readdirSyncRecursive("directory");

wrench.readdirRecursive("directory", function (error, files) {
    // live your dreams
});

EDIT (2018):
Anyone reading through in recent time: The author deprecated this package in 2015:

wrench.js is deprecated, and hasn't been updated in quite some time. I heavily recommend using fs-extra to do any extra filesystem operations.


For fun, here is a flow based version that works with highland.js streams library. It was co-authored by Victor Vu.

###
  directory >---m------> dirFilesStream >---------o----> out
                |                                 |
                |                                 |
                +--------< returnPipe <-----------+

  legend: (m)erge  (o)bserve

 + directory         has the initial file
 + dirListStream     does a directory listing
 + out               prints out the full path of the file
 + returnPipe        runs stat and filters on directories

###

_ = require('highland')
fs = require('fs')
fsPath = require('path')

directory = _(['someDirectory'])
mergePoint = _()
dirFilesStream = mergePoint.merge().flatMap((parentPath) ->
  _.wrapCallback(fs.readdir)(parentPath).sequence().map (path) ->
    fsPath.join parentPath, path
)
out = dirFilesStream
# Create the return pipe
returnPipe = dirFilesStream.observe().flatFilter((path) ->
  _.wrapCallback(fs.stat)(path).map (v) ->
    v.isDirectory()
)
# Connect up the merge point now that we have all of our streams.
mergePoint.write directory
mergePoint.write returnPipe
mergePoint.end()
# Release backpressure.  This will print files as they are discovered
out.each H.log
# Another way would be to queue them all up and then print them all out at once.
# out.toArray((files)-> console.log(files))

Using async/await, this should work:

const FS = require('fs');
const readDir = promisify(FS.readdir);
const fileStat = promisify(FS.stat);

async function getFiles(dir) {
    let files = await readDir(dir);

    let result = files.map(file => {
        let path = Path.join(dir,file);
        return fileStat(path).then(stat => stat.isDirectory() ? getFiles(path) : path);
    });

    return flatten(await Promise.all(result));
}

function flatten(arr) {
    return Array.prototype.concat(...arr);
}

You can use bluebird.Promisify or this:

/**
 * Returns a function that will wrap the given `nodeFunction`. Instead of taking a callback, the returned function will return a promise whose fate is decided by the callback behavior of the given node function. The node function should conform to node.js convention of accepting a callback as last argument and calling that callback with error as the first argument and success value on the second argument.
 *
 * @param {Function} nodeFunction
 * @returns {Function}
 */
module.exports = function promisify(nodeFunction) {
    return function(...args) {
        return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
            nodeFunction.call(this, ...args, (err, data) => {
                if(err) {
                    reject(err);
                } else {
                    resolve(data);
                }
            })
        });
    };
};

Node 8+ has Promisify built-in

See my other answer for a generator approach that can give results even faster.


just a simple walk

let pending = [baseFolderPath]
function walk () {
    pending.shift();
    // do stuffs width pending[0] and change pending items
    if (pending[0]) walk(pending[0])
}
walk(pending[0])

Here's a recursive method of getting all files including subdirectories.

const FileSystem = require("fs");
const Path = require("path");

//...

function getFiles(directory) {
    directory = Path.normalize(directory);
    let files = FileSystem.readdirSync(directory).map((file) => directory + Path.sep + file);

    files.forEach((file, index) => {
        if (FileSystem.statSync(file).isDirectory()) {
            Array.prototype.splice.apply(files, [index, 1].concat(getFiles(file)));
        }
    });

    return files;
}