globby

You can exclude files from your results using negation patterns (starting with !). There are two ways to implement this:

1. With positive patterns: Include positive patterns followed by negation patterns to filter the results.

2. Negation-only patterns: If you provide only negation patterns, globby implicitly prepends **/* to match all files before applying the negations. For example, ['!*.json', '!*.xml'] is equivalent to ['**/*', '!*.json', '!*.xml'].

Note: The implicit **/* pattern respects the dot option. By default, dotfiles (files starting with .) are not matched unless you set dot: true in the options.

// Matches all .js files except test files
await globby(['src/**/*.js', '!src/**/*.test.js']);

// Matches all files in config/ except .json and .xml files
await globby(['!*.json', '!*.xml'], {cwd: 'config'});

Globby uses standard globbing syntax to match files:

• *: Matches any number of characters, but not /.
• ?: Matches a single character, but not /.
• **: Matches any number of characters, including / (must be the only thing in a path part).
• {}: Allows for a comma-separated list of "or" expressions.
• !: Negates the match when placed at the beginning of a pattern.

Install globby using npm to use its user-friendly glob matching features.

npm install globby

Set gitignore: true (default is false) to respect ignore patterns in .gitignore files. Globby searches from the current working directory downwards and respects parent .gitignore files up to the Git repository root, matching standard Git behavior.

Performance Tip: To read fewer ignore files, use ignoreFiles: '.gitignore' to target only the root ignore file.

The expandDirectories option controls how directories are handled:

• true (default): Automatically globs directories.
• Array: Only globs files matching the patterns in the array.
• object: Allows fine-grained control using files and extensions.

Note: If set to false, you won't get matched directories back unless you also set onlyFiles: false.

import {globby} from 'globby';

const paths = await globby('images', {
	expandDirectories: {
		files: ['cat', 'unicorn', '*.jpg'],
		extensions: ['png']
	}
});

console.log(paths);
//=> ['cat.png', 'unicorn.png', 'cow.jpg', 'rainbow.jpg']

When providing only negation patterns (e.g., ['!*.json']), expandNegationOnlyPatterns (default true) automatically prepends **/* to match all files before applying negations. Set to false to return an empty array when only negation patterns are provided.

import {globby} from 'globby';

// Default behavior: matches all files except .json
await globby(['!*.json']);

// Disable expansion: returns empty array
await globby(['!*.json'], {expandNegationOnlyPatterns: false});

Import globby to match files using patterns. It supports multiple patterns, negated patterns (e.g., ['foo*', '!foobar']), and negation-only patterns (e.g., ['!foobar'] which matches all files except foobar). It also automatically expands directories (e.g., foo becomes foo/**/*) and supports .gitignore files.

import {globby} from 'globby';

const paths = await globby(['*', '!cake']);

console.log(paths);
//=> ['unicorn', 'rainbow']

Use convertPathToPattern(path) to escape special glob characters like (), [], and {}. On Windows, it also converts backslashes to forward slashes. This is necessary when your literal paths contain characters that have special meaning in glob syntax.

import {globby, convertPathToPattern} from 'globby';

// ✅ Works
const base = convertPathToPattern('C:/Program Files (x86)');
await globby(`${base}/*.txt`);
//=> ['C:/Program Files (x86)/file.txt']