node.js fs.readdir recursive directory search

Question

Any ideas on an async directory search using fs.readdir? I realise that we could introduce recursion and call the read directory function with the next directory to read, bu

Answer 1

This is my answer. Hope it can help somebody.

My focus is to make the searching routine can stop at anywhere, and for a file found, tells the relative depth to the original path.

var _fs = require('fs');
var _path = require('path');
var _defer = process.nextTick;

// next() will pop the first element from an array and return it, together with
// the recursive depth and the container array of the element. i.e. If the first
// element is an array, it'll be dug into recursively. But if the first element is
// an empty array, it'll be simply popped and ignored.
// e.g. If the original array is [1,[2],3], next() will return [1,0,[[2],3]], and
// the array becomes [[2],3]. If the array is [[[],[1,2],3],4], next() will return
// [1,2,[2]], and the array becomes [[[2],3],4].
// There is an infinity loop `while(true) {...}`, because I optimized the code to
// make it a non-recursive version.
var next = function(c) {
    var a = c;
    var n = 0;
    while (true) {
        if (a.length == 0) return null;
        var x = a[0];
        if (x.constructor == Array) {
            if (x.length > 0) {
                a = x;
                ++n;
            } else {
                a.shift();
                a = c;
                n = 0;
            }
        } else {
            a.shift();
            return [x, n, a];
        }
    }
}

// cb is the callback function, it have four arguments:
//    1) an error object if any exception happens;
//    2) a path name, may be a directory or a file;
//    3) a flag, `true` means directory, and `false` means file;
//    4) a zero-based number indicates the depth relative to the original path.
// cb should return a state value to tell whether the searching routine should
// continue: `true` means it should continue; `false` means it should stop here;
// but for a directory, there is a third state `null`, means it should do not
// dig into the directory and continue searching the next file.
var ls = function(path, cb) {
    // use `_path.resolve()` to correctly handle '.' and '..'.
    var c = [ _path.resolve(path) ];
    var f = function() {
        var p = next(c);
        p && s(p);
    };
    var s = function(p) {
        _fs.stat(p[0], function(err, ss) {
            if (err) {
                // use `_defer()` to turn a recursive call into a non-recursive call.
                cb(err, p[0], null, p[1]) && _defer(f);
            } else if (ss.isDirectory()) {
                var y = cb(null, p[0], true, p[1]);
                if (y) r(p);
                else if (y == null) _defer(f);
            } else {
                cb(null, p[0], false, p[1]) && _defer(f);
            }
        });
    };
    var r = function(p) {
        _fs.readdir(p[0], function(err, files) {
            if (err) {
                cb(err, p[0], true, p[1]) && _defer(f);
            } else {
                // not use `Array.prototype.map()` because we can make each change on site.
                for (var i = 0; i < files.length; i++) {
                    files[i] = _path.join(p[0], files[i]);
                }
                p[2].unshift(files);
                _defer(f);
            }
        });
    }
    _defer(f);
};

var printfile = function(err, file, isdir, n) {
    if (err) {
        console.log('-->   ' + ('[' + n + '] ') + file + ': ' + err);
        return true;
    } else {
        console.log('... ' + ('[' + n + '] ') + (isdir ? 'D' : 'F') + ' ' + file);
        return true;
    }
};

var path = process.argv[2];
ls(path, printfile);