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Find files with glob patterns

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Glob patterns describe sets of file paths in one compact string, with * matching within a path segment and ** matching across directories. This example finds matching files on disk with expandGlob from the standard library, and matches path strings in memory with globToRegExp.

We build a small directory tree to search through.
const dir = await Deno.makeTempDir();
await Deno.mkdir(`${dir}/src/util`, { recursive: true });
await Deno.mkdir(`${dir}/build`);
await Deno.writeTextFile(`${dir}/src/main.ts`, "");
await Deno.writeTextFile(`${dir}/src/util/helpers.ts`, "");
await Deno.writeTextFile(`${dir}/src/util/helpers_test.ts`, "");
await Deno.writeTextFile(`${dir}/build/bundle.ts`, "");
await Deno.writeTextFile(`${dir}/readme.md`, "");
expandGlob walks the file system and yields every entry that matches the pattern. The ** segment matches any number of directories. The exclude option filters out paths, here the generated build directory.
import { expandGlob } from "jsr:@std/fs";

const found: string[] = [];
for await (
  const entry of expandGlob("**/*.ts", {
    root: dir,
    exclude: ["build"],
  })
) {
  found.push(entry.path.slice(dir.length + 1));
}
The walk order depends on the file system, so we sort before printing.
console.log(found.sort());
[ "src/main.ts", "src/util/helpers.ts", "src/util/helpers_test.ts" ]
The Node.js API offers globbing too: glob from node:fs/promises is an async iterator of matching paths, with cwd and exclude options.
import { glob } from "node:fs/promises";

const nodeFound: string[] = [];
for await (const path of glob("**/*.ts", { cwd: dir, exclude: ["build"] })) {
  nodeFound.push(path);
}
console.log(nodeFound.sort());
[ "src/main.ts", "src/util/helpers.ts", "src/util/helpers_test.ts" ]
Sometimes the paths are already in memory, for instance from a config file or an API response. globToRegExp turns a glob into a RegExp so you can match strings without touching the disk.
import { globToRegExp } from "jsr:@std/path";

const pattern = globToRegExp("src/**/*.ts", { globstar: true });
console.log(pattern.test("src/main.ts")); // true
console.log(pattern.test("src/util/helpers.ts")); // true
console.log(pattern.test("build/bundle.ts")); // false
A single * stays within one path segment, so it does not cross slashes.
const shallow = globToRegExp("src/*.ts");
console.log(shallow.test("src/main.ts")); // true
console.log(shallow.test("src/util/helpers.ts")); // false
expandGlob reads directories, so it requires the -R permission.
await Deno.remove(dir, { recursive: true });

Run this example locally using the Deno CLI:

deno run -R -W https://docs.deno.com/examples/scripts/glob_patterns.ts

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