micromatch

Glob matching for javascript/node.js. A replacement and faster alternative to minimatch and multimatch.

Please consider following this project’s author, Jon Schlinkert, and consider starring the project to show your ❤️ and support.

Table of Contents

Install

Install with npm:

$ npm install --save micromatch

Sponsors

Become a Sponsor to add your logo to this README, or any of my other projects

Quickstart

const micromatch = require('micromatch');
// micromatch(list, patterns[, options]);

The main export takes a list of strings and one or more glob patterns:

console.log(micromatch(['foo', 'bar', 'baz', 'qux'], ['f*', 'b*'])) //=> ['foo', 'bar', 'baz']
console.log(micromatch(['foo', 'bar', 'baz', 'qux'], ['*', '!b*'])) //=> ['foo', 'qux']

Use .isMatch() to for boolean matching:

console.log(micromatch.isMatch('foo', 'f*')) //=> true
console.log(micromatch.isMatch('foo', ['b*', 'f*'])) //=> true

Switching from minimatch and multimatch is easy!

Why use micromatch?

micromatch is a replacement for minimatch and multimatch

• Supports all of the same matching features as minimatch and multimatch
• More complete support for the Bash 4.3 specification than minimatch and multimatch. Micromatch passes all of the spec tests from bash, including some that bash still fails.
• Fast & Performant - Loads in about 5ms and performs fast matches.
• Glob matching - Using wildcards (* and ?), globstars (**) for nested directories
• Advanced globbing - Supports extglobs, braces, and POSIX brackets, and support for escaping special characters with \ or quotes.
• Accurate - Covers more scenarios than minimatch
• Well tested - More than 5,000 test assertions
• Windows support - More reliable windows support than minimatch and multimatch.
• Safe - Micromatch is not subject to DoS with brace patterns like minimatch and multimatch.

Matching features

• Support for multiple glob patterns (no need for wrappers like multimatch)
• Wildcards (**, *.js)
• Negation ('!a/*.js', '*!(b).js')
• extglobs (+(x|y), !(a|b))
• POSIX character classes ([[:alpha:][:digit:]])
• brace expansion (foo/{1..5}.md, bar/{a,b,c}.js)
• regex character classes (foo-[1-5].js)
• regex logical “or” (foo/(abc|xyz).js)

You can mix and match these features to create whatever patterns you need!

Switching to micromatch

(There is one notable difference between micromatch and minimatch in regards to how backslashes are handled. See the notes about backslashes for more information.)

From minimatch

Use micromatch.isMatch() instead of minimatch():

console.log(micromatch.isMatch('foo', 'b*')); //=> false

Use micromatch.match() instead of minimatch.match():

console.log(micromatch.match(['foo', 'bar'], 'b*')); //=> 'bar'

From multimatch

Same signature:

console.log(micromatch(['foo', 'bar', 'baz'], ['f*', '*z'])); //=> ['foo', 'baz']

API

Params

• list {String|Array}: List of strings to match.
• patterns {String|Array}: One or more glob patterns to use for matching.
• options {Object}: See available options
• returns {Array}: Returns an array of matches

Example

const mm = require('micromatch');
// mm(list, patterns[, options]);

console.log(mm(['a.js', 'a.txt'], ['*.js']));
//=> [ 'a.js' ]

.matcher

Returns a matcher function from the given glob pattern and options. The returned function takes a string to match as its only argument and returns true if the string is a match.

Params

• pattern {String}: Glob pattern
• options {Object}
• returns {Function}: Returns a matcher function.

Example

const mm = require('micromatch');
// mm.matcher(pattern[, options]);

const isMatch = mm.matcher('*.!(*a)');
console.log(isMatch('a.a')); //=> false
console.log(isMatch('a.b')); //=> true

.isMatch

Returns true if any of the given glob patterns match the specified string.

Params

• str {String}: The string to test.
• patterns {String|Array}: One or more glob patterns to use for matching.
• [options] {Object}: See available options.
• returns {Boolean}: Returns true if any patterns match str

Example

const mm = require('micromatch');
// mm.isMatch(string, patterns[, options]);

console.log(mm.isMatch('a.a', ['b.*', '*.a'])); //=> true
console.log(mm.isMatch('a.a', 'b.*')); //=> false

.not

Returns a list of strings that do not match any of the given patterns.

Params

• list {Array}: Array of strings to match.
• patterns {String|Array}: One or more glob pattern to use for matching.
• options {Object}: See available options for changing how matches are performed
• returns {Array}: Returns an array of strings that do not match the given patterns.

Example

const mm = require('micromatch');
// mm.not(list, patterns[, options]);

console.log(mm.not(['a.a', 'b.b', 'c.c'], '*.a'));
//=> ['b.b', 'c.c']

.contains

Returns true if the given string contains the given pattern. Similar to .isMatch but the pattern can match any part of the string.

Params

• str {String}: The string to match.
• patterns {String|Array}: Glob pattern to use for matching.
• options {Object}: See available options for changing how matches are performed
• returns {Boolean}: Returns true if any of the patterns matches any part of str.

Example

var mm = require('micromatch');
// mm.contains(string, pattern[, options]);

console.log(mm.contains('aa/bb/cc', '*b'));
//=> true
console.log(mm.contains('aa/bb/cc', '*d'));
//=> false

.matchKeys

Filter the keys of the given object with the given glob pattern and options. Does not attempt to match nested keys. If you need this feature, use glob-object instead.

Params

• object {Object}: The object with keys to filter.
• patterns {String|Array}: One or more glob patterns to use for matching.
• options {Object}: See available options for changing how matches are performed
• returns {Object}: Returns an object with only keys that match the given patterns.

Example

const mm = require('micromatch');
// mm.matchKeys(object, patterns[, options]);

const obj = { aa: 'a', ab: 'b', ac: 'c' };
console.log(mm.matchKeys(obj, '*b'));
//=> { ab: 'b' }

.some

Returns true if some of the strings in the given list match any of the given glob patterns.

Params

• list {String|Array}: The string or array of strings to test. Returns as soon as the first match is found.
• patterns {String|Array}: One or more glob patterns to use for matching.
• options {Object}: See available options for changing how matches are performed
• returns {Boolean}: Returns true if any patterns matches any of the strings in list

Example

const mm = require('micromatch');
// mm.some(list, patterns[, options]);

console.log(mm.some(['foo.js', 'bar.js'], ['*.js', '!foo.js']));
// true
console.log(mm.some(['foo.js'], ['*.js', '!foo.js']));
// false

.every

Returns true if every string in the given list matches any of the given glob patterns.

Params

• list {String|Array}: The string or array of strings to test.
• patterns {String|Array}: One or more glob patterns to use for matching.
• options {Object}: See available options for changing how matches are performed
• returns {Boolean}: Returns true if all patterns matches all of the strings in list

Example

const mm = require('micromatch');
// mm.every(list, patterns[, options]);

console.log(mm.every('foo.js', ['foo.js']));
// true
console.log(mm.every(['foo.js', 'bar.js'], ['*.js']));
// true
console.log(mm.every(['foo.js', 'bar.js'], ['*.js', '!foo.js']));
// false
console.log(mm.every(['foo.js'], ['*.js', '!foo.js']));
// false

.all

Returns true if all of the given patterns match the specified string.

Params

• str {String|Array}: The string to test.
• patterns {String|Array}: One or more glob patterns to use for matching.
• options {Object}: See available options for changing how matches are performed
• returns {Boolean}: Returns true if any patterns match str

Example

const mm = require('micromatch');
// mm.all(string, patterns[, options]);

console.log(mm.all('foo.js', ['foo.js']));
// true

console.log(mm.all('foo.js', ['*.js', '!foo.js']));
// false

console.log(mm.all('foo.js', ['*.js', 'foo.js']));
// true

console.log(mm.all('foo.js', ['*.js', 'f*', '*o*', '*o.js']));
// true

.capture

Returns an array of matches captured by pattern in string, ornull` if the pattern did not match.

Params

• glob {String}: Glob pattern to use for matching.
• input {String}: String to match
• options {Object}: See available options for changing how matches are performed
• returns {Array|null}: Returns an array of captures if the input matches the glob pattern, otherwise null.

Example

const mm = require('micromatch');
// mm.capture(pattern, string[, options]);

console.log(mm.capture('test/*.js', 'test/foo.js'));
//=> ['foo']
console.log(mm.capture('test/*.js', 'foo/bar.css'));
//=> null

.makeRe

Create a regular expression from the given glob pattern.

Params

• pattern {String}: A glob pattern to convert to regex.
• options {Object}
• returns {RegExp}: Returns a regex created from the given pattern.

Example

const mm = require('micromatch');
// mm.makeRe(pattern[, options]);

console.log(mm.makeRe('*.js'));
//=> /^(?:(\.[\\\/])?(?!\.)(?=.)[^\/]*?\.js)$/

.scan

Scan a glob pattern to separate the pattern into segments. Used by the split method.

Params

• pattern {String}
• options {Object}
• returns {Object}: Returns an object with

Example

const mm = require('micromatch');
const state = mm.scan(pattern[, options]);

.parse

Parse a glob pattern to create the source string for a regular expression.

Params

• glob {String}
• options {Object}
• returns {Object}: Returns an object with useful properties and output to be used as regex source string.

Example

const mm = require('micromatch');
const state = mm.parse(pattern[, options]);

.braces

Process the given brace pattern.

Params

• pattern {String}: String with brace pattern to process.
• options {Object}: Any options to change how expansion is performed. See the braces library for all available options.
• returns {Array}

Example

const { braces } = require('micromatch');
console.log(braces('foo/{a,b,c}/bar'));
//=> [ 'foo/(a|b|c)/bar' ]

console.log(braces('foo/{a,b,c}/bar', { expand: true }));
//=> [ 'foo/a/bar', 'foo/b/bar', 'foo/c/bar' ]

Options

Options Examples

options.basename

Allow glob patterns without slashes to match a file path based on its basename. Same behavior as minimatch option matchBase.

Type: Boolean

Default: false

Example

micromatch(['a/b.js', 'a/c.md'], '*.js');
//=> []

micromatch(['a/b.js', 'a/c.md'], '*.js', { basename: true });
//=> ['a/b.js']

options.bash

Enabled by default, this option enforces bash-like behavior with stars immediately following a bracket expression. Bash bracket expressions are similar to regex character classes, but unlike regex, a star following a bracket expression does not repeat the bracketed characters. Instead, the star is treated the same as any other star.

Type: Boolean

Default: true

Example

const files = ['abc', 'ajz'];
console.log(micromatch(files, '[a-c]*'));
//=> ['abc', 'ajz']

console.log(micromatch(files, '[a-c]*', { bash: false }));

options.expandRange

Type: function

Default: undefined

Custom function for expanding ranges in brace patterns. The fill-range library is ideal for this purpose, or you can use custom code to do whatever you need.

Example

The following example shows how to create a glob that matches a numeric folder name between 01 and 25, with leading zeros.

const fill = require('fill-range');
const regex = micromatch.makeRe('foo/{01..25}/bar', {
  expandRange(a, b) {
    return `(${fill(a, b, { toRegex: true })})`;
  }
});

console.log(regex)
//=> /^(?:foo\/((?:0[1-9]|1[0-9]|2[0-5]))\/bar)$/

console.log(regex.test('foo/00/bar')) // false
console.log(regex.test('foo/01/bar')) // true
console.log(regex.test('foo/10/bar')) // true
console.log(regex.test('foo/22/bar')) // true
console.log(regex.test('foo/25/bar')) // true
console.log(regex.test('foo/26/bar')) // false

options.format

Type: function

Default: undefined

Custom function for formatting strings before they’re matched.

Example

// strip leading './' from strings
const format = str => str.replace(/^\.\//, '');
const isMatch = picomatch('foo/*.js', { format });
console.log(isMatch('./foo/bar.js')) //=> true

options.ignore

String or array of glob patterns to match files to ignore.

Type: String|Array

Default: undefined

const isMatch = micromatch.matcher('*', { ignore: 'f*' });
console.log(isMatch('foo')) //=> false
console.log(isMatch('bar')) //=> true
console.log(isMatch('baz')) //=> true

options.matchBase

Alias for options.basename.

options.noextglob

Disable extglob support, so that extglobs are regarded as literal characters.

Type: Boolean

Default: undefined

Examples

console.log(micromatch(['a/z', 'a/b', 'a/!(z)'], 'a/!(z)'));
//=> ['a/b', 'a/!(z)']

console.log(micromatch(['a/z', 'a/b', 'a/!(z)'], 'a/!(z)', { noextglob: true }));
//=> ['a/!(z)'] (matches only as literal characters)

options.nonegate

Disallow negation (!) patterns, and treat leading ! as a literal character to match.

Type: Boolean

Default: undefined

options.noglobstar

Disable matching with globstars (**).

Type: Boolean

Default: undefined

micromatch(['a/b', 'a/b/c', 'a/b/c/d'], 'a/**');
//=> ['a/b', 'a/b/c', 'a/b/c/d']

micromatch(['a/b', 'a/b/c', 'a/b/c/d'], 'a/**', {noglobstar: true});
//=> ['a/b']

options.nonull

Alias for options.nullglob.

options.nullglob

If true, when no matches are found the actual (arrayified) glob pattern is returned instead of an empty array. Same behavior as minimatch option nonull.

Type: Boolean

Default: undefined

options.onIgnore

const onIgnore = ({ glob, regex, input, output }) => {
  console.log({ glob, regex, input, output });
  // { glob: '*', regex: /^(?:(?!\.)(?=.)[^\/]*?\/?)$/, input: 'foo', output: 'foo' }
};

const isMatch = micromatch.matcher('*', { onIgnore, ignore: 'f*' });
isMatch('foo');
isMatch('bar');
isMatch('baz');

options.onMatch

const onMatch = ({ glob, regex, input, output }) => {
  console.log({ input, output });
  // { input: 'some\\path', output: 'some/path' }
  // { input: 'some\\path', output: 'some/path' }
  // { input: 'some\\path', output: 'some/path' }
};

const isMatch = micromatch.matcher('**', { onMatch, posixSlashes: true });
isMatch('some\\path');
isMatch('some\\path');
isMatch('some\\path');

options.onResult

const onResult = ({ glob, regex, input, output }) => {
  console.log({ glob, regex, input, output });
};

const isMatch = micromatch('*', { onResult, ignore: 'f*' });
isMatch('foo');
isMatch('bar');
isMatch('baz');

options.posixSlashes

Convert path separators on returned files to posix/unix-style forward slashes. Aliased as unixify for backwards compatibility.

Type: Boolean

Default: true on windows, false everywhere else.

Example

console.log(micromatch.match(['a\\b\\c'], 'a/**'));
//=> ['a/b/c']

console.log(micromatch.match(['a\\b\\c'], { posixSlashes: false }));
//=> ['a\\b\\c']

options.unescape

Remove backslashes from escaped glob characters before creating the regular expression to perform matches.

Type: Boolean

Default: undefined

Example

In this example we want to match a literal *:

console.log(micromatch.match(['abc', 'a\\*c'], 'a\\*c'));
//=> ['a\\*c']

console.log(micromatch.match(['abc', 'a\\*c'], 'a\\*c', { unescape: true }));
//=> ['a*c']

Extended globbing

Micromatch supports the following extended globbing features.

Extglobs

Extended globbing, as described by the bash man page:

^* Note that @ isn’t a regex character.

Braces

Brace patterns can be used to match specific ranges or sets of characters.

Example

The pattern {f,b}*/{1..3}/{b,q}* would match any of following strings:

foo/1/bar
foo/2/bar
foo/3/bar
baz/1/qux
baz/2/qux
baz/3/qux

Visit braces to see the full range of features and options related to brace expansion, or to create brace matching or expansion related issues.

Regex character classes

Given the list: ['a.js', 'b.js', 'c.js', 'd.js', 'E.js']:

• [ac].js: matches both a and c, returning ['a.js', 'c.js']
• [b-d].js: matches from b to d, returning ['b.js', 'c.js', 'd.js']
• a/[A-Z].js: matches and uppercase letter, returning ['a/E.md']

Learn about regex character classes.

Regex groups

Given ['a.js', 'b.js', 'c.js', 'd.js', 'E.js']:

• (a|c).js: would match either a or c, returning ['a.js', 'c.js']
• (b|d).js: would match either b or d, returning ['b.js', 'd.js']
• (b|[A-Z]).js: would match either b or an uppercase letter, returning ['b.js', 'E.js']

As with regex, parens can be nested, so patterns like ((a|b)|c)/b will work. Although brace expansion might be friendlier to use, depending on preference.

POSIX bracket expressions

POSIX brackets are intended to be more user-friendly than regex character classes. This of course is in the eye of the beholder.

Example

console.log(micromatch.isMatch('a1', '[[:alpha:][:digit:]]')) //=> true
console.log(micromatch.isMatch('a1', '[[:alpha:][:alpha:]]')) //=> false

Notes

Bash 4.3 parity

Whenever possible matching behavior is based on behavior Bash 4.3, which is mostly consistent with minimatch.

However, it’s suprising how many edge cases and rabbit holes there are with glob matching, and since there is no real glob specification, and micromatch is more accurate than both Bash and minimatch, there are cases where best-guesses were made for behavior. In a few cases where Bash had no answers, we used wildmatch (used by git) as a fallback.

Backslashes

There is an important, notable difference between minimatch and micromatch in regards to how backslashes are handled in glob patterns.

• Micromatch exclusively and explicitly reserves backslashes for escaping characters in a glob pattern, even on windows, which is consistent with bash behavior. More importantly, unescaping globs can result in unsafe regular expressions.
• Minimatch converts all backslashes to forward slashes, which means you can’t use backslashes to escape any characters in your glob patterns.

We made this decision for micromatch for a couple of reasons:

• Consistency with bash conventions.
• Glob patterns are not filepaths. They are a type of regular language that is converted to a JavaScript regular expression. Thus, when forward slashes are defined in a glob pattern, the resulting regular expression will match windows or POSIX path separators just fine.

A note about joining paths to globs

Note that when you pass something like path.join('foo', '*') to micromatch, you are creating a filepath and expecting it to still work as a glob pattern. This causes problems on windows, since the path.sep is \\.

In other words, since \\ is reserved as an escape character in globs, on windows path.join('foo', '*') would result in foo\\*, which tells micromatch to match * as a literal character. This is the same behavior as bash.

To solve this, you might be inspired to do something like 'foo\\*'.replace(/\\/g, '/'), but this causes another, potentially much more serious, problem.

Benchmarks

Running benchmarks

Install dependencies for running benchmarks:

$ cd bench && npm install

Run the benchmarks:

$ npm run bench

Latest results

As of August 23, 2024 (longer bars are better):

# .makeRe star
  micromatch x 2,232,802 ops/sec ±2.34% (89 runs sampled))
  minimatch x 781,018 ops/sec ±6.74% (92 runs sampled))

# .makeRe star; dot=true
  micromatch x 1,863,453 ops/sec ±0.74% (93 runs sampled)
  minimatch x 723,105 ops/sec ±0.75% (93 runs sampled)

# .makeRe globstar
  micromatch x 1,624,179 ops/sec ±2.22% (91 runs sampled)
  minimatch x 1,117,230 ops/sec ±2.78% (86 runs sampled))

# .makeRe globstars
  micromatch x 1,658,642 ops/sec ±0.86% (92 runs sampled)
  minimatch x 741,224 ops/sec ±1.24% (89 runs sampled))

# .makeRe with leading star
  micromatch x 1,525,014 ops/sec ±1.63% (90 runs sampled)
  minimatch x 561,074 ops/sec ±3.07% (89 runs sampled)

# .makeRe - braces
  micromatch x 172,478 ops/sec ±2.37% (78 runs sampled)
  minimatch x 96,087 ops/sec ±2.34% (88 runs sampled)))

# .makeRe braces - range (expanded)
  micromatch x 26,973 ops/sec ±0.84% (89 runs sampled)
  minimatch x 3,023 ops/sec ±0.99% (90 runs sampled))

# .makeRe braces - range (compiled)
  micromatch x 152,892 ops/sec ±1.67% (83 runs sampled)
  minimatch x 992 ops/sec ±3.50% (89 runs sampled)d))

# .makeRe braces - nested ranges (expanded)
  micromatch x 15,816 ops/sec ±13.05% (80 runs sampled)
  minimatch x 2,953 ops/sec ±1.64% (91 runs sampled)

# .makeRe braces - nested ranges (compiled)
  micromatch x 110,881 ops/sec ±1.85% (82 runs sampled)
  minimatch x 1,008 ops/sec ±1.51% (91 runs sampled)

# .makeRe braces - set (compiled)
  micromatch x 134,930 ops/sec ±3.54% (63 runs sampled))
  minimatch x 43,242 ops/sec ±0.60% (93 runs sampled)

# .makeRe braces - nested sets (compiled)
  micromatch x 94,455 ops/sec ±1.74% (69 runs sampled))
  minimatch x 27,720 ops/sec ±1.84% (93 runs sampled))

Contributing

All contributions are welcome! Please read the contributing guide to get started.

Bug reports

Please create an issue if you encounter a bug or matching behavior that doesn’t seem correct. If you find a matching-related issue, please:

• research existing issues first (open and closed)
• visit the GNU Bash documentation to see how Bash deals with the pattern
• visit the minimatch documentation to cross-check expected behavior in node.js
• if all else fails, since there is no real specification for globs we will probably need to discuss expected behavior and decide how to resolve it. which means any detail you can provide to help with this discussion would be greatly appreciated.

Platform issues

It’s important to us that micromatch work consistently on all platforms. If you encounter any platform-specific matching or path related issues, please let us know (pull requests are also greatly appreciated).

About

$ npm install && npm test

$ npm install -g verbose/verb#dev verb-generate-readme && verb

Related projects

You might also be interested in these projects:

• braces: Bash-like brace expansion, implemented in JavaScript. Safer than other brace expansion libs, with complete support… more | homepage
• expand-brackets: Expand POSIX bracket expressions (character classes) in glob patterns. | homepage
• extglob: Extended glob support for JavaScript. Adds (almost) the expressive power of regular expressions to glob… more | homepage
• fill-range: Fill in a range of numbers or letters, optionally passing an increment or step to… more | homepage
• nanomatch: Fast, minimal glob matcher for node.js. Similar to micromatch, minimatch and multimatch, but complete Bash… more | homepage

Contributors

Author

Jon Schlinkert

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License

Copyright © 2024, Jon Schlinkert.
Released under the MIT License.

This file was generated by verb-generate-readme, v0.8.0, on August 23, 2024.