javascript regex to ignore sub directories for chokidar

Question

Currently using Chokidar to do file watching on a file structure. I have a requirement to watch a specific directory, but ignore any sub-directories created in that directory.

For example,
/var/app/current/somedir

I would watch any file created in somedir. However if a directory were created in somedir, then I want to ignore it recursively, thus also ignoring anything else created under it.

chokidar.watch(configuration.theDir, {
        ignored: `/\\var\\app\\current\\somedir\\<match anything here, except other directories!>\\<anything here would be ignored and further down...>/`,
        awaitWriteFinish: {
            stabilityThreshold: 2000,
            pollInterval: 100
        }
}).on('add', (file, details) => {
    // console.log(file, path);
});

The struggle is real for me to figure out how to properly implement a regex to do this. Unfortunately the directories that get created are random and the name is not known beforehand. Is this even possible to do?

Answer 1

This regex expression will match everything that is a directory or belongs in a subdirectory of the base (directory defined by a following slash /).

For your example, the base is: /var/app/current/somedir

Regex: /^\/var\/app\/current\/somedir\/.*[\/].*$/i

Test:

var tests = [
    '/var/app/current/somedir/fileOrFolder.txt',
    '/var/app/current/somedir/fileOrFolder/',
    '/var/app/current/somedir/fileOrFolder/ssads/sad.s',
    '/var/app/current/somedir/fileOrFolder.sd/sdasda.asda/',
    '/var/app/current/somedir/fileOrFolder.txt',
    '/var/app/current/somedir/fileOrFolder'
]

for (var ii = 0, nn = tests.length; ii < nn; ii++)
{
    if (/^\/var\/app\/current\/somedir\/.*[\/].*$/i.test(tests[ii]))
    {
        console.log('"'+tests[ii]+'"', 'Matched, so ignored.');
    }
    else
    {
        console.log('"'+tests[ii]+'"', 'Not matched, so watch.');
    }
}

Prints the following in JavaScript console:

/*
 * "/var/app/current/somedir/fileOrFolder.txt" Not matched, so watch.
 * "/var/app/current/somedir/fileOrFolder/" Matched, so ignored.
 * "/var/app/current/somedir/fileOrFolder/ssads/sad.s" Matched, so ignored.
 * "/var/app/current/somedir/fileOrFolder.sd/sdasda.asda/" Matched, so ignored.
 * "/var/app/current/somedir/fileOrFolder.txt" Not matched, so watch.
 * "/var/app/current/somedir/fileOrFolder" Not matched, so watch.
*/