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Feature Request: Allow dir_ls glob/regex patterns to ignore the supplied path #512
Description
dir_ls glob/regex patterns act on the whole path, including what was passed by path. Often this can be accidentally misleading since the folder path itself contains a pattern (maybe even accidentally) that breaks the intended logic.
Request: it would be great if there were an argument to dir_ls to ignore the part of the path that was already supplied in path (effectively filtering only on the relative path).
Simple reprex:
temp <- tempfile("T Cell") |> fs::dir_create()
tryCatch({
good_path <- fs::path(temp, "T Cell Data.csv")
bad_path <- fs::path(temp, "Other Data.csv")
readr::write_csv(data.frame(), good_path)
readr::write_csv(data.frame(), bad_path)
ls_result <- fs::dir_ls(temp, glob="*T Cell*.csv")
message("good_path found: ", good_path %in% ls_result)
message("bad_path found: ", bad_path %in% ls_result)
},
finally = fs::dir_delete(temp)
)
#> good_path found: TRUE
#> bad_path found: TRUECreated on 2026-03-31 with reprex v2.1.1
Simple implementation extending current dir_ls with argument filter_on_relative_path.
dir_ls <- function (path = ".", all = FALSE, recurse = FALSE, type = "any",
glob = NULL, regexp = NULL, invert = FALSE, fail = TRUE, filter_on_relative_path = FALSE,
..., recursive)
{
assert_no_missing(path)
if (!missing(recursive)) {
recurse <- recursive
warning("`recursive` is deprecated, please use `recurse` instead",
immediate. = TRUE, call. = FALSE)
}
old <- path_expand(path)
files <- as.character(dir_map(old, identity, all, recurse,
type, fail))
# Simple case (same as existing)
if (!filter_on_relative_path)
return(path_filter(files, glob, regexp, invert = invert, ...))
# Filter on relative path only.
rel_files <- fs::path_rel(files, start=old)
files[match(fs::path_filter(rel_files, glob, regexp, invert = invert, ...), rel_files)]
}
Activity
orgadish commentedon Apr 1, 2026
If approved, I'm happy to put in a PR with the implementation above (and associated testing), given an agreed name for the argument (perhaps just
relative?)arnaudgallou commentedon Jul 6, 2026
I've the same request.
dir_ls(regex =)seems to match against the full path as opposed tolist.files(pattern =)that matches against the actual elements of a path. The latter is more convenient and less confusing because it makes it easy to avoid matching undesired files or directories using^(rather than/).Created on 2026-07-06 with reprex v2.1.1
I'd prefer
dir_list()to behave likelist.files()here. Also, I find it confusing thatdir_ls(regexp = "^foo$")returnscharacter(0). It would be useful to have a hint explaining why there's no match because the regexp is valid and the file exists.