# glob-parent

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## glob-parent

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Extract the non-magic parent path from a glob string.

### Usage

```js
var globParent = require('glob-parent');

globParent('path/to/*.js'); // 'path/to'
globParent('/root/path/to/*.js'); // '/root/path/to'
globParent('/*.js'); // '/'
globParent('*.js'); // '.'
globParent('**/*.js'); // '.'
globParent('path/{to,from}'); // 'path'
globParent('path/!(to|from)'); // 'path'
globParent('path/?(to|from)'); // 'path'
globParent('path/+(to|from)'); // 'path'
globParent('path/*(to|from)'); // 'path'
globParent('path/@(to|from)'); // 'path'
globParent('path/**/*'); // 'path'

// if provided a non-glob path, returns the nearest dir
globParent('path/foo/bar.js'); // 'path/foo'
globParent('path/foo/'); // 'path/foo'
globParent('path/foo'); // 'path' (see issue #3 for details)
```

### API

#### `globParent(maybeGlobString, [options])`

Takes a string and returns the part of the path before the glob begins. Be aware of Escaping rules and Limitations below.

**options**

```js
{
  // Disables the automatic conversion of slashes for Windows
  flipBackslashes: true
}
```

### Escaping

The following characters have special significance in glob patterns and must be escaped if you want them to be treated as regular path characters:

* `?` (question mark) unless used as a path segment alone
* `*` (asterisk)
* `|` (pipe)
* `(` (opening parenthesis)
* `)` (closing parenthesis)
* `{` (opening curly brace)
* `}` (closing curly brace)
* `[` (opening bracket)
* `]` (closing bracket)

**Example**

```js
globParent('foo/[bar]/') // 'foo'
globParent('foo/\\[bar]/') // 'foo/[bar]'
```

### Limitations

#### Braces & Brackets

This library attempts a quick and imperfect method of determining which path parts have glob magic without fully parsing/lexing the pattern. There are some advanced use cases that can trip it up, such as nested braces where the outer pair is escaped and the inner one contains a path separator. If you find yourself in the unlikely circumstance of being affected by this or need to ensure higher-fidelity glob handling in your library, it is recommended that you pre-process your input with [expand-braces](https://github.com/jonschlinkert/expand-braces) and/or [expand-brackets](https://github.com/jonschlinkert/expand-brackets).

#### Windows

Backslashes are not valid path separators for globs. If a path with backslashes is provided anyway, for simple cases, glob-parent will replace the path separator for you and return the non-glob parent path (now with forward-slashes, which are still valid as Windows path separators).

This cannot be used in conjunction with escape characters.

```js
// BAD
globParent('C:\\Program Files \\(x86\\)\\*.ext') // 'C:/Program Files /(x86/)'

// GOOD
globParent('C:/Program Files\\(x86\\)/*.ext') // 'C:/Program Files (x86)'
```

If you are using escape characters for a pattern without path parts (i.e. relative to `cwd`), prefix with `./` to avoid confusing glob-parent.

```js
// BAD
globParent('foo \\[bar]') // 'foo '
globParent('foo \\[bar]*') // 'foo '

// GOOD
globParent('./foo \\[bar]') // 'foo [bar]'
globParent('./foo \\[bar]*') // '.'
```

### License

ISC