glob-replace

Replace patterns across file globs - a thin wrapper around JavaScript's string.replace(RegExp(...), replacement).

Usage

npx glob-replace \
  --glob <glob> \
  --find <pattern> \
  --replace <replacement>

Examples

# Simple replacement
npx glob-replace \
  --glob 'src/**/*.ts' \
  --find 'foo' \
  --replace 'bar'

# Global replace with backreferences
npx glob-replace \
  --glob 'src/**/*.ts' \
  --find '(\w+)_(\w+)' \
  --replace '$1-$2' \
  --flags g

# Multiple globs
npx glob-replace \
  --glob 'src/**/*.js' \
  --glob 'lib/**/*.js' \
  --find 'old' \
  --replace 'new'

# From stdin
echo 'hello_world' | npx glob-replace \
  --find '(\w+)_(\w+)' \
  --replace '$1-$2' \
  --stdin

# Dry run (preview changes)
npx glob-replace \
  --glob '**/*.md' \
  --find 'old' \
  --replace 'new' \
  --dry-run

Options

| Option | Description | | ---------------------- | --------------------------------------- | | -g, --glob <g> | File glob to process (repeatable) | | -f, --find <pattern> | Pattern to search for | | -r, --replace <str> | Replacement string | | --flags <f> | RegExp flags (e.g., g, gi) | | --literal | Treat pattern as literal string | | --stdin | Read from stdin, write to stdout | | --dry-run | Preview without writing | | --encoding <e> | File encoding (default: utf8) | | --concurrency <n> | Max parallel files (default: CPU count) |

Notes

• Uses JavaScript RegExp + String.prototype.replace
• Backreferences use $1, $2, etc.
• No flags by default—add --flags g for global replacement
• At least one --glob is required unless --stdin is used

Shell quoting patterns

Patterns are passed directly to JavaScript RegExp. Most escaping issues come from the shell, not glob-replace.

Single quotes — use by default:

npx glob-replace \
  --glob '**/*.txt' \
  --find '\bword\b' \
  --replace 'replacement'

Concatenated quotes — when you need shell expansion:

name="user"
npx glob-replace \
  --glob '**/*.conf' \
  --find '^'"$name"'\s*=' \
  --replace 'found='

Here-docs — when patterns contain quotes or span multiple lines:

npx glob-replace \
  --glob 'src/**/*.js' \
  --find "$(cat <<'FIND'
const\s+(\w+)\s*=\s*'([^']+)'
FIND
)" \
  --replace "$(cat <<'REPLACE'
let $1 = '$2'
REPLACE
)"

Here-docs are especially useful when matching JavaScript source, where single quotes in patterns conflict with shell quoting.