How do you get a list of the names of all files present in a directory in Node js

Question

I m trying to get a list of the names of all the files present in a directory using Node js   I want output that is an array of filenames  How can I do this

User · Answer

non-recursive version  You don t say you want to do it recursively so I assume you only need direct children of the directory   Sample code   const fs   require  fs    const path   require  path     fs readdirSync  your-directory-path      filter  file    gt  fs lstatSync path join folder  file   isFile

User · Answer

I m assuming from your question that you don t want directories names  just files  Directory Structure Example animals  -- all jpg  -- mammals       -- cat jpg       -- dog jpg  -- insects      -- bee jpg  Walk function Credits go to Justin Maier in this gist If you want just an array of the files paths use return object  false  const fs   require  fs   promises  const path   require  path     async function walk dir        let files   await fs readdir dir       files   await Promise all files map async file   gt            const filePath   path join dir  file           const stats   await fs stat filePath           if  stats isDirectory    return walk filePath           else if stats isFile    return filePath                return files reduce  all  folderContents    gt  all concat folderContents           Usage async function main        console log await walk  animals       Output      quot  animals all jpg quot      quot  animals mammals cat jpg quot      quot  animals mammals dog jpg quot      quot  animals insects bee jpg quot

User · Answer

Get sorted filenames  You can filter results based on a specific extension such as   txt     jpg  and so on   import   as fs from  fs   import   as Path from  path    function getFilenames path  extension        return fs          readdirSync path           filter              item   gt                  fs statSync Path join path  item   isFile    amp  amp                   extension     undefined    Path extname item      extension                     sort

User · Answer

As of Node v10 10 0  it is possible to use the new withFileTypes option for fs readdir and fs readdirSync in combination with the dirent isDirectory   function to filter for filenames in a directory  That looks like this   fs readdirSync    dirpath    withFileTypes  true    filter item   gt   item isDirectory     map item   gt  item name    The returned array is in the form     file1 txt    file2 txt    file3 txt     Docs for the fs Dirent class

User · Answer

Here s an asynchronous recursive version       function   path  callback           the callback gets   err  files  where files is an array of file names      if  typeof callback      function    return      var       result              files     path replace      s                 function traverseFiles           if  files length            var name   files shift          fs stat name  function  err  stats           if  err             if  err errno    34   traverseFiles          in case there s broken symbolic links or a bad path        skip file instead of sending error          else callback err                    else if   stats isDirectory     fs readdir  name  function  err  files2             if  err   callback err           else             files   files2             map  function  file    return name         file                 concat  files             traverseFiles                                 else           result push name           traverseFiles                                     else callback  null  result               traverseFiles

User · Answer

Use npm list-contents module  It reads the contents and sub-contents of the given directory and returns the list of files  and folders  paths   const list   require  list-contents     list    dist   o   gt     if o error  throw o error     console log  Folders     o dirs      console log  Files     o files

User · Answer

This is a TypeScript  optionally recursive  optionally error logging and asynchronous solution  You can specify a regular expression for the file names you want to find   I used fs-extra  because its an easy super set improvement on fs   import   as FsExtra from  fs-extra          Finds files in the folder that match filePattern  optionally passing back errors      If folderDepth isn t specified  only the first level is searched  Otherwise anything up    to Infinity is supported         static     param  string  folder The folder to start in      param  string   filePattern       A regular expression of the files you want to find      param   Error     undefined    errors undefined      param  number   folderDepth 0      returns  Promise lt string   gt       memberof FileHelper     public static async findFiles      folder  string      filePattern  string             errors  Error     undefined   undefined      folderDepth  number   0    Promise lt string   gt        const results  string                Get all files from the folder     let items   await FsExtra readdir folder  catch error   gt            if  errors                errors push error     Save errors if we wish  e g  folder perms issues                     return results                Go through to the required depth and no further     folderDepth   folderDepth - 1         Loop through the results  possibly recurse     for  const item of items            try               const fullPath   Path join folder  item               if                   FsExtra statSync fullPath  isDirectory    amp  amp                  folderDepth  gt  -1                                     Its a folder  recursively get the child folders  files                 results push                          await FileHelper findFiles fullPath  filePattern  errors  folderDepth                                   else                      Filter by the file name pattern  if there is one                 if  filePattern             item search new RegExp filePattern   i     gt  -1                        results push fullPath                                            catch  error                if  errors                    errors push error     Save errors if we wish                                    return results

User · Answer

Just a heads up  if you re planning to perform operations on each file in a directory  try vinyl-fs  which is used by gulp  the streaming build system

User · Answer

If many of the above options seem too complex or not what you are looking for here is another approach using node-dir - https   github com fshost node-dir npm install node-dir  Here is a somple function to list all  xml files searching in subdirectories import   as nDir from  node-dir     listXMLs rootFolderPath        let xmlFiles        nDir files rootFolderPath  function err  items            xmlFiles   items filter i   gt                return path extname i        xml                         console log xmlFiles

User · Answer

I made a node module to automate this task  mddir  Usage  node mddir     relative path    To install  npm install mddir -g  To generate markdown for current directory  mddir  To generate for any absolute path  mddir  absolute path  To generate for a relative path  mddir   Documents whatever   The md file gets generated in your working directory   Currently ignores node modules  and  git folders   Troubleshooting  If you receive the error  node r  No such file or directory   the issue is that your operating system uses different line endings and mddir can t parse them without you explicitly setting the line ending style to Unix  This usually affects Windows  but also some versions of Linux  Setting line endings to Unix style has to be performed within the mddir npm global bin folder   Line endings fix  Get npm bin folder path with   npm config get prefix  Cd into that folder  brew install dos2unix  dos2unix lib node modules mddir src mddir js  This converts line endings to Unix instead of Dos  Then run as normal with  node mddir     relative path     Example generated markdown file structure  directoryList md        --  bowerrc      --  jshintrc      --  jshintrc2      -- Gruntfile js      -- README md      -- bower json      -- karma conf js      -- package json      -- app          -- app js          -- db js          -- directoryList md          -- index html          -- mddir js          -- routing js          -- server js          --  api              -- api groups js              -- api posts js              -- api users js              -- api widgets js          --  components              -- directives                  -- directives module js                  -- vendor                      -- directive draganddrop js              -- helpers                  -- helpers module js                  -- proprietary                      -- factory actionDispatcher js              -- services                  -- services cardTemplates js                  -- services cards js                  -- services groups js                  -- services posts js                  -- services users js                  -- services widgets js          --  mocks              -- mocks groups js              -- mocks posts js              -- mocks users js              -- mocks widgets js

User · Answer

I usually use  FS-Extra  const fileNameArray   Fse readdir   some path     Result       quot b7c8a93c-45b3-4de8-b9b5-a0bf28fb986e jpg quot      quot daeb1c5b-809f-4434-8fd9-410140789933 jpg quot

User · Answer

You can use the fs readdir or fs readdirSync methods  fs is included in Node js core  so there s no need to install anything  fs readdir const testFolder      tests    const fs   require  fs     fs readdir testFolder   err  files    gt      files forEach file   gt        console log file              fs readdirSync const testFolder      tests    const fs   require  fs     fs readdirSync testFolder  forEach file   gt      console log file        The difference between the two methods  is that the first one is asynchronous  so you have to provide a callback function that will be executed when the read process ends  The second is synchronous  it will return the file name array  but it will stop any further execution of your code until the read process ends

User · Answer

Using Promises with ES7  Asynchronous use with mz fs  The mz module provides promisified versions of the core node library  Using them is simple  First install the library     npm install mz   Then     const fs   require  mz fs    fs readdir    myDir   then listing   gt  console log listing      catch err   gt  console error err      Alternatively you can write them in asynchronous functions in ES7   async function myReaddir        try       const file   await fs readdir    myDir           catch  err    console error  err          Update for recursive listing  Some of the users have specified a desire to see a recursive listing  though not in the question     Use fs-promise  It s a thin wrapper around mz   npm install fs-promise    then     const fs   require  fs-promise    fs walk    myDir   then      listing   gt  listing forEach file   gt  console log file path     catch err   gt  console error err

User · Answer

I ve recently built a tool for this that does just this    It fetches a directory asynchronously and returns a list of items  You can either get directories  files or both  with folders being first  You can also paginate the data in case where you don t want to fetch the entire folder   https   www npmjs com package fs-browser  This is the link  hope it helps someone

User · Answer

function getFilesRecursiveSync dir  fileList  optionalFilterFunction        if   fileList            grunt log error  Variable  fileList  is undefined or NULL             return            var files   fs readdirSync dir       for  var i in files            if   files hasOwnProperty i   continue          var name   dir         files i           if  fs statSync name  isDirectory                  getFilesRecursiveSync name  fileList  optionalFilterFunction             else               if  optionalFilterFunction  amp  amp  optionalFilterFunction name      true                  continue              fileList push name

User · Answer

Took the general approach of  Hunan-Rostomyan  made it a litle more concise and added excludeDirs argument  It d be trivial to extend with includeDirs  just follow same pattern   import   as fs from  fs   import   as path from  path    function fileList dir  excludeDirs         return fs readdirSync dir  reduce function  list  file            const name   path join dir  file           if  fs statSync name  isDirectory                  if  excludeDirs  amp  amp  excludeDirs length                    excludeDirs   excludeDirs map d   gt  path normalize d                    const idx   name indexOf path sep                   const directory   name slice 0  idx     -1   name length   idx                   if  excludeDirs indexOf directory      -1                      return list                            return list concat fileList name  excludeDirs                      return list concat  name                    Example usage   console log fileList        node modules    typings    bower components

User · Answer

Dependencies   var fs   require  fs    var path   require  path      Definition      String - gt   String  function fileList dir      return fs readdirSync dir  reduce function list  file        var name   path join dir  file       var isDir   fs statSync name  isDirectory        return list concat isDir   fileList name     name                  Usage   var DIR     usr local bin       1  List all files in DIR fileList DIR        gt     usr local bin babel     usr local bin bower            2  List all file names in DIR fileList DIR  map  file    gt  file split path sep  slice -1  0         gt    babel    bower          Please note that fileList is way too optimistic  For anything serious  add some error handling

User · Answer

IMO the most convenient way to do such tasks is to use a glob tool  Here s a glob package for node js  Install with npm install glob  Then use wild card to match filenames  example taken from package s website  var glob   require  quot glob quot       options is optional glob  quot      js quot   options  function  er  files         files is an array of filenames       If the  nonull  option is set  and nothing      was found  then files is   quot      js quot        er is an error object or null

User · Answer

Load fs   const fs   require  fs      Read files async   fs readdir    dir   function  err  files            files  is an Array with files names       Read files sync   var files   fs readdirSync    dir

User · Answer

if someone still search for this  i do this    x000D   x000D  import fs from  fs   x000D  import path from  path   x000D   x000D  const getAllFiles   dir   gt  x000D      fs readdirSync dir  reduce  files  file    gt    x000D          const name   path join dir  file   x000D          const isDirectory   fs statSync name  isDirectory    x000D          return isDirectory       files     getAllFiles name         files  name   x000D              x000D   x000D   x000D    and its work very good for me

User · Answer

My 2 cents if someone  Just want to list file names  excluding directories  from a local sub-folder on their project    No additional dependencies   1 function   Normalize path  Unix vs  Windows   const fs   require  quot fs quot    const path   require  quot path quot             param  string  relativeName  quot resources foo goo quot      return  string        const listFileNames    relativeName    gt      try       const folderPath   path join process cwd       relativeName split  quot   quot         return fs        readdirSync folderPath    withFileTypes  true           filter  dirent    gt  dirent isFile           map  dirent    gt  dirent name split  quot   quot   0        catch  err                        README md package json resources   -- countries      -- usa yaml      -- japan yaml      -- gb yaml      -- provinces         --             listFileNames  quot resources countries quot      gt    quot usa quot    quot japan quot    quot gb quot

User · Answer

Out of the box  In case you want an object with the directory structure out-of-the-box I highly reccomend you to check directory-tree   Lets say you have this structure   photos      june       -- windsurf jpg  -- january      -- ski png      -- snowboard jpg   const dirTree   require  directory-tree    const tree   dirTree   path to photos      Will return       path   photos     name   photos     size  600    type   directory     children                path   photos june         name   june         size  400        type   directory         children                        path   photos june windsurf jpg             name   windsurf jpg             size  400            type   file             extension    jpg                                       path   photos january         name   january         size  200        type   directory         children                        path   photos january ski png             name   ski png             size  100            type   file             extension    png                                 path   photos january snowboard jpg             name   snowboard jpg             size  100            type   file             extension    jpg                                  Custom Object  Otherwise if you want to create an directory tree object with your custom settings have a look at the following snippet  A live example is visible on this codesandbox      my-script js const fs   require  fs    const path   require  path     const isDirectory   filePath   gt  fs statSync filePath  isDirectory    const isFile   filePath   gt  fs statSync filePath  isFile     const getDirectoryDetails   filePath   gt      const dirs   fs readdirSync filePath     return       dirs  dirs filter name   gt  isDirectory path join filePath  name         files  dirs filter name   gt  isFile path join filePath  name             const getFilesRecursively    parentPath  currentFolder    gt      const currentFolderPath   path join parentPath  currentFolder     let currentDirectoryDetails   getDirectoryDetails currentFolderPath      const final         current dir  currentFolder      dirs  currentDirectoryDetails dirs map dir   gt        getFilesRecursively currentFolderPath  dir             files  currentDirectoryDetails files         return final      const getAllFiles   relativePath   gt      const fullPath   path join   dirname  relativePath     const parentDirectoryPath   path dirname fullPath     const leafDirectory   path basename fullPath      const allFiles   getFilesRecursively parentDirectoryPath  leafDirectory     return allFiles      module exports     getAllFiles      Then you can simply do       another-file js   const   getAllFiles     require  path to my-script     const allFiles   getAllFiles   path to my-directory

User · Answer

Get files in all subdirs const fs require  fs     function getFiles  dir  files        files    files             var files   fs readdirSync dir       for  var i in files           var name   dir         files i           if  fs statSync name  isDirectory                 getFiles name  files              else               files  push name                       return files      console log getFiles  path to dir

User · Answer

This will work and store the result in test txt file which will be present in the same directory    fs readdirSync   dirname  forEach file   gt        fs appendFileSync  test txt   file   n   function err

User · Answer

The answer above does not perform a recursive search into the directory though  Here s what I did for a recursive search  using node-walk  npm install walk   var walk      require  walk    var files             Walker options var walker    walk walk    test     followLinks  false      walker on  file   function root  stat  next           Add this file to the list of files     files push root         stat name       next         walker on  end   function         console log files

User · Answer

Here s a simple solution using only the native fs and path modules      sync version function walkSync currentDirPath  callback        var fs   require  fs            path   require  path        fs readdirSync currentDirPath  forEach function  name            var filePath   path join currentDirPath  name           var stat   fs statSync filePath           if  stat isFile                  callback filePath  stat             else if  stat isDirectory                  walkSync filePath  callback                         or async version  uses fs readdir instead       async version with basic error handling function walk currentDirPath  callback        var fs   require  fs            path   require  path        fs readdir currentDirPath  function  err  files            if  err                throw new Error err                     files forEach function  name                var filePath   path join currentDirPath  name               var stat   fs statSync filePath               if  stat isFile                      callback filePath  stat                 else if  stat isDirectory                      walk filePath  callback                                         Then you just call  for sync version    walkSync  path to root dir   function filePath  stat           do something with  filePath           or async version   walk  path to root dir   function filePath  stat           do something with  filePath           The difference is in how node blocks while performing the IO  Given that the API above is the same  you could just use the async version to ensure maximum performance   However there is one advantage to using the synchronous version  It is easier to execute some code as soon as the walk is done  as in the next statement after the walk  With the async version  you would need some extra way of knowing when you are done  Perhaps creating a map of all paths first  then enumerating them  For simple build util scripts  vs high performance web servers  you could use the sync version without causing any damage

[javascript] How do you get a list of the names of all files present in a directory in Node.js?

non-recursive version

Examples related to javascript

Examples related to node.js

Examples related to directory-listing