# readdirp

> Recursive version of fs.readdir with small RAM & CPU footprint

Latest version **5.1.1** (published 2026-08-06) · MIT license · 0 weekly downloads

## Install

```sh
npm install readdirp
pnpm add readdirp
yarn add readdirp
bun add readdirp
```

## Health

**Score 75/100 (B)** — status: active.

Positive: has types; esm support; no vulnerabilities; has provenance; recently updated; high maintenance score; high quality score.

Warnings: low downloads.

## Facts

| | |
|---|---|
| Version | 5.1.1 |
| Published | 2026-08-06 |
| First published | 2012-07-18 |
| Weekly downloads | 0 |
| License | MIT |
| TypeScript types | bundled |
| Module format | ESM + CommonJS |
| Node | >= 20.19.0 |
| Dependencies | 0 |
| Unpacked size | 26.2 KB |
| Known vulnerabilities | 0 |
| Install scripts | no |
| Provenance | attested (GitHub Actions) |
| GitHub stars | 420 |
| Author | Thorsten Lorenz |
| Maintainers | paulmillr, thlorenz |
| Keywords | recursive, fs, stream, streams, readdir, filesystem, find, filter |

## Links

- npm: https://www.npmjs.com/package/readdirp
- Repository: https://github.com/paulmillr/readdirp
- Issues: https://github.com/paulmillr/readdirp/issues
- Funding: https://paulmillr.com/funding/
- npm.io page: https://npm.io/package/readdirp

## Alternatives

- [unionfs](https://npm.io/package/unionfs.md) — 2.2M weekly downloads
- [path-starts-with](https://npm.io/package/path-starts-with.md) — 35.9K weekly downloads
- [redzip](https://npm.io/package/redzip.md) — 1.2K weekly downloads
- [vscode-anymatch](https://npm.io/package/vscode-anymatch.md) — 848 weekly downloads
- [@ledgerhq/coin-filecoin](https://npm.io/package/@ledgerhq/coin-filecoin.md) — 793 weekly downloads

## Recent versions

- 5.1.1 (latest) — 2026-08-06
- 5.0.0 — 2025-11-25
- 4.1.2 — 2025-02-14
- 4.1.1 — 2025-01-11
- 4.1.0 — 2025-01-11
- 4.0.2 — 2024-10-03
- 4.0.1 — 2024-08-25
- 4.0.0 — 2024-08-25
- 3.6.0 — 2021-03-14
- 3.5.0 — 2020-10-13
- 3.4.0 — 2020-03-19
- 3.3.0 — 2019-12-06
- 3.2.0 — 2019-10-14
- 3.1.3 — 2019-10-01
- 3.1.2 — 2019-08-14
- … 33 more at https://npm.io/package/readdirp/versions

## README

# readdirp [![Weekly downloads](https://img.shields.io/npm/dw/readdirp.svg)](https://github.com/paulmillr/readdirp)

Recursive version of fs.readdir. Exposes a **stream API** (with small RAM & CPU footprint) and a **promise API**.

Faster than built-in `fs.readdir recursive: true`, and uses less RAM.

```sh
npm install readdirp
jsr add jsr:@paulmillr/readdirp
```

```javascript
// Use streams to achieve small RAM & CPU footprint.
// 1) Streams example with for-await.
import readdirp from 'readdirp';
for await (const entry of readdirp('.')) {
  const {path} = entry;
  console.log(`${JSON.stringify({path})}`);
}

// 2) Streams example, non for-await.
// Print out all JS files along with their size within the current folder & subfolders.
import readdirp from 'readdirp';
readdirp('.', {alwaysStat: true, fileFilter: (f) => f.basename.endsWith('.js')})
  .on('data', (entry) => {
    const {path, stats: {size}} = entry;
    console.log(`${JSON.stringify({path, size})}`);
  })
  // Optionally call stream.destroy() in `warn()` in order to abort and cause 'close' to be emitted
  .on('warn', error => console.error('non-fatal error', error))
  .on('error', error => console.error('fatal error', error))
  .on('end', () => console.log('done'));

// 3) Promise example. More RAM and CPU than streams / for-await.
import { readdirpPromise } from 'readdirp';
const files = await readdirpPromise('.');
console.log(files.map(file => file.path));

// Other options.
import readdirp from 'readdirp';
readdirp('test', {
  fileFilter: (f) => f.basename.endsWith('.js'),
  directoryFilter: (d) => d.basename !== '.git',
  // directoryFilter: (di) => di.basename.length === 9
  type: 'files_directories',
  depth: 1
});
```

## API

`const stream = readdirp(root[, options])` — **Stream API**

- Reads given root recursively and returns a `stream` of [entry infos](#entryinfo)
- Optionally can be used like `for await (const entry of stream)` with node.js 10+ (`asyncIterator`).
- `on('data', (entry) => {})` [entry info](#entryinfo) for every file / dir.
- `on('warn', (error) => {})` non-fatal `Error` that prevents a file / dir from being processed. Example: inaccessible to the user.
- `on('error', (error) => {})` fatal `Error` which also ends the stream. Example: illegal options where passed.
- `on('end')` — we are done. Called when all entries were found and no more will be emitted.
- `on('close')` — stream is destroyed via `stream.destroy()`.
  Could be useful if you want to manually abort even on a non fatal error.
  At that point the stream is no longer `readable` and no more entries, warning or errors are emitted
- To learn more about streams, consult the very detailed [nodejs streams documentation](https://nodejs.org/api/stream.html)
  or the [stream-handbook](https://github.com/substack/stream-handbook)

`const entries = await readdirp.promise(root[, options])` — **Promise API**. Returns a list of [entry infos](#entryinfo).

First argument is awalys `root`, path in which to start reading and recursing into subdirectories.

### options

- `fileFilter`: filter to include or exclude files
    - **Function**: a function that takes an entry info as a parameter and returns true to include or false to exclude the entry
- `directoryFilter`: filter to include/exclude directories found and to recurse into. Directories that do not pass a filter will not be recursed into.
- `depth: 5`: depth at which to stop recursing even if more subdirectories are found
- `type: 'files'`: determines if data events on the stream should be emitted for `'files'` (default), `'directories'`, `'files_directories'`, or `'all'`. Setting to `'all'` will also include entries for other types of file descriptors like character devices, unix sockets and named pipes.
- `alwaysStat: false`: always return `stats` property for every file. Default is `false`, readdirp will return `Dirent` entries. Setting it to `true` can double readdir execution time - use it only when you need file `size`, `mtime` etc. Cannot be enabled on node <10.10.0.
- `lstat: false`: include symlink entries in the stream along with files. When `true`, `fs.lstat` would be used instead of `fs.stat`

### `EntryInfo`

Has the following properties:

- `path: 'assets/javascripts/react.js'`: path to the file/directory (relative to given root)
- `fullPath: '/Users/dev/projects/app/assets/javascripts/react.js'`: full path to the file/directory found
- `basename: 'react.js'`: name of the file/directory
- `dirent: fs.Dirent`: built-in [dir entry object](https://nodejs.org/api/fs.html#fs_class_fs_dirent) - only with `alwaysStat: false`
- `stats: fs.Stats`: built in [stat object](https://nodejs.org/api/fs.html#fs_class_fs_stats) - only with `alwaysStat: true`

## Changelog

- 4.0 (Aug 25, 2024) rewritten in typescript, producing hybrid common.js / esm module.
    - Remove glob support and all dependencies
    - Make sure you're using `let {readdirp} = require('readdirp')` in common.js
- 3.5 (Oct 13, 2020) disallows recursive directory-based symlinks.
  Before, it could have entered infinite loop.
- 3.4 (Mar 19, 2020) adds support for directory-based symlinks.
- 3.3 (Dec 6, 2019) stabilizes RAM consumption and enables perf management with `highWaterMark` option. Fixes race conditions related to `for-await` looping.
- 3.2 (Oct 14, 2019) improves performance by 250% and makes streams implementation more idiomatic.
- 3.1 (Jul 7, 2019) brings `bigint` support to `stat` output on Windows. This is backwards-incompatible for some cases. Be careful. It you use it incorrectly, you'll see "TypeError: Cannot mix BigInt and other types, use explicit conversions".
- 3.0 brings huge performance improvements and stream backpressure support.
- Upgrading 2.x to 3.x:
    - Signature changed from `readdirp(options)` to `readdirp(root, options)`
    - Replaced callback API with promise API.
    - Renamed `entryType` option to `type`
    - Renamed `entryType: 'both'` to `'files_directories'`
    - `EntryInfo`
        - Renamed `stat` to `stats`
            - Emitted only when `alwaysStat: true`
            - `dirent` is emitted instead of `stats` by default with `alwaysStat: false`
        - Renamed `name` to `basename`
        - Removed `parentDir` and `fullParentDir` properties
- Supported node.js versions:
    - 4.x: node 14+
    - 3.x: node 8+
    - 2.x: node 0.6+

## License

Copyright (c) 2012-2019 Thorsten Lorenz, Paul Miller (<https://paulmillr.com>)

MIT License, see [LICENSE](LICENSE) file.

---
_Source: https://npm.io/package/readdirp · Machine-readable twin of the npm.io package page. Health data is recomputed on every publish._