Cannot recursively list all *.js files

[pdehaan]

I think I'm either missing something... It seems like you can pass an -R flag to the ls() command and it should search recursively, but if I specify a file filter (*.js only) then it seems to ignore the recursive flag...

Steps to reproduce:

'use strict';

var shell = require('shelljs');

console.log('1. Finds all *.html files, regardless of directory depth.');
shell.find('./').filter(function (file) {
  return file.match(/\.html?$/i);
}).forEach(function (file) {
  console.log(file);
});

console.log('\n2. Finds all *.js files in the current directory only.');
shell.ls('*.js').forEach(function (file) {
  console.log(file);
});

console.log('\n3. Finds all *.js files in the nested directories.');
shell.ls('-R', ['*.js']).forEach(function (file) {
  console.log(file);
});

Output:

1. Finds all *.html files, regardless of directory depth.
node_modules/eslint/node_modules/doctrine/test/test.html
node_modules/eslint/node_modules/js-yaml/demo/index.html
node_modules/eslint/node_modules/js-yaml/node_modules/argparse/node_modules/underscore/index.html
node_modules/eslint/node_modules/js-yaml/node_modules/argparse/node_modules/underscore.string/test/test.html
node_modules/eslint/node_modules/js-yaml/node_modules/argparse/node_modules/underscore.string/test/test_standalone.html
node_modules/eslint/node_modules/js-yaml/node_modules/argparse/node_modules/underscore.string/test/test_underscore/index.html

2. Finds all *.js files in the current directory only.
index.js

3. Finds all *.js files in the nested directories.
index.js

Workaround:

Use find() and do your own file filtering using the Array.filter() method.

[nfischer]

I just tested this in Bash, and saw this behavior:

$ git clone https://github.com/shelljs/shelljs.git # a repo we all know and love
$ cd shelljs/
$ ls *.js
global.js  make.js  shell.js
$ ls -R *.js # only goes in the current directory
global.js  make.js  shell.js
$ ls test/*.js # even though a subdirectory has many .js files
test/cat.js
test/cd.js
test/chmod.js
... # and many more .js files

Since ShellJS seems to emulate the Bash behavior, I think we should close this issue. But excellent work finding a suitable workaround for your use case! If you see different behavior from your version of ls, please ping this thread and we can definitely reconsider making a PR for this.