remove-glob

A tiny cross-platform utility to remove items or directories recursively, it also accepts an optional glob pattern. There's also a CLI for easy, cross-platform usage using cli-nano which is the only external dependency.

Inspired by rimraf and premove but also supports glob pattern to remove multiple files or directories.

[!NOTE] This project now requires Node.JS >= 22.17.0 so that we can use the native fs.glob, however if you can't update your Node.JS just yet, then just stick with remove-glob: ^0.4.10 since that is the only change in v1.0.0

Install

npm install remove-glob

Command Line

A remove binary is available, it takes an optional path argument (zero or multiple file/directory paths) to be removed or a --glob pattern instead of path(s).

[!NOTE] The paths and glob arguments are both optionals, but you must provide at least 1 of them. However, please note that providing both of them simultaneously is not supported and will throw an error (choose the option that is best suited to your use case).

When using the --glob option, dotfiles and dot-directories (e.g. .env, .gitignore, .config/) are included by default. If you want to exclude them, you can adjust your glob pattern (e.g. use **/[!.]*.js or add an !**/.* pattern).

Usage:
  remove [paths..] [options] → Remove all items recursively

Arguments:
  paths           Directory or file paths to remove                                           [string..]

Options:
      --cwd       Directory to resolve from (default ".")                                     [string]
  -d, --dry-run   Show which files/dirs would be deleted but without actually removing them   [boolean]
  -g, --glob      Glob pattern(s) to find which files/dirs to remove                          [array]
  -a, --all       Include dotfiles (files starting with a dot) when matching glob patterns    [boolean]
  -s, --stat      Show the stats of the items being removed                                   [boolean]
  -V, --verbose   If true, it will log each file or directory being removed                   [boolean]
  -e, --exclude   Glob pattern(s) to exclude from deletion (overrides the default patterns)   [array]
  -h, --help      Show help                                                                   [boolean]
  -v, --version   Show version number                                                         [boolean]

When exclude glob pattern(s) are provided, it will override the default exclude of: ["**/.git/**", "**/.git", "**/node_modules/**", "**/node_modules"].

The --all/-a option includes dotfiles (files starting with a dot) in glob matches. By default, dotfiles are excluded unless explicitly matched or this option is used.

Negation Patterns

You can use negation patterns (starting with !) in glob arrays to exclude files from removal:

$ npx remove --glob "src/**/*.js" --glob "!src/**/*.test.js"
# This will remove all .js files except those ending with .test.js

Brace Expansion

Brace expansion is supported in glob patterns:

$ npx remove --glob "src/*.{js,ts}"
# This will match both .js and .ts files in src/

Remove files or directories. Note: on Windows globs must be double quoted, everybody else can quote however they please.

# remove "foo" and "bar" via `npx`
$ npx remove foo bar

# or remove using glob pattern(s)
$ npx remove --glob \"dist/**/*.js\"
$ npx remove --glob=\"dist/**/*.js\" --glob=\"packages/*/tsconfig.tsbuildinfo\"

# install globally, use whenever
$ npm install remove-glob -g
$ remove foo bar
$ remove --glob \"dist/**/*.{js,map}\"

When using the --glob option, it will skip .git/ and node_modules/ directories by default (using the default --exclude patterns). If you want to allow deletion of these directories, you can override the default by providing your own --exclude option (including an empty array to disable exclusion):

# Remove everything, including .git and node_modules
$ npx remove --glob "**/*" --exclude ""
# Or exclude only .git, but allow node_modules to be deleted
$ npx remove --glob "**/*" --exclude "**/.git/**" --exclude "**/.git"

Usage

import { resolve } from 'node:path';
import { removeSync } from 'remove-glob';

// remove via paths
removeSync({ paths: './foobar' });
removeSync({ paths: ['./foo/file1.txt', './foo/file2.txt'] });

// or remove via glob pattern
removeSync({ glob: 'foo/**/*.txt' });

// Using `cwd` option
const dir = resolve('./foo/bar');
await removeSync({ paths: ['hello.txt'], cwd: dir });

JavaScript API

import { removeSync } from 'remove-glob';

removeSync(opt, callback);

The first argument is an object holding any of the options shown below. The last argument is an optional callback function that will be executed after all files were removed.

{
  cwd: string;              // directory to resolve your `filepath` from, defaults to `process.cwd()`
  dryRun: boolean;          // show what would be removed, without actually removing anything
  paths: string | string[]; // filepath(s) to remove – may be a file or a directory.
  glob: string | string[];  // glob pattern(s) to find which files/directories to remove
  exclude: string | string[]; // glob pattern(s) to exclude from deletion
  all: boolean;             // include dotfiles (files starting with a dot) in glob matches
  stat: boolean;            // show some statistics after execution (time + file count)
  verbose: boolean;         // print more information to console when executing the removal
}

[!NOTE] The first argument is required and it must include either a paths or a glob, but it cannot include both options simultaneously. A

When an exclude glob pattern is provided, it will override the default exclusion of: ["**/.git/**", "**/.git", "**/node_modules/**", "**/node_modules"].

Advanced glob usage

• Negation: Use !pattern in a glob array to exclude files from removal.
• Brace expansion: Use {a,b} to match multiple alternatives in a single pattern.
• Dotfiles: Use --all/-a to include dotfiles in glob matches.

Used by

I use it in most of my own open source projects as a Dev Dependency (feel free to modify this list and add your project(s) as well)

• Lerna-Lite
• SlickGrid
• Slickgrid-Universal