Adds glob-style pattern matching for files in tsconfig.json

[rbuckton]

Supersedes #3232.

Adds support for expanding glob-like patterns in "include" and "exclude" properties of tsconfig.json. The following patterns are supported:

• * - Matches zero or more characters, excluding directory separators.
• ? - Matches any one character, excluding directory separators.
• **/ - Recursively matches any subdirectory.
• If the file segment of a path contains only * or .*, only supported extensions are considered (e.g. ".ts", ".tsx", and ".d.ts" by default, and also ".js" and ".jsx" if allowJs is true).

At this time, character escape sequences are not supported, as there is no standard cross-platform convention. The standard escape sequence in a Unix shell is prefixed with \, which is reserved as a directory separator on Windows, and is normalized to / by TypeScript. Character ranges are also not included at this time.

This does not use the glob module, as TypeScript runs in more host environments than just NodeJS, and this would need to interoperate with the language service host.

{
    "compilerOptions": {
        "out": "test.js"
    },
    "files": [
      "literal.ts"
    ],
    "include": [
        "**/*.ts"
    ],
    "exclude": [
        "node_modules",
        "tests/**/*.spec.ts",
        "utils/t2.ts"
    ]
}

Notes:

• Files in the "files" list are always added to the list of files.
• The "exclude" list only applies to files matched via "include". If the leading directory of a path is excluded, it will not be traversed. You cannot re-include an excluded file, other than through providing it as a literal path in the "files" list.
• If neither "files" nor "include" are present, "include" defaults to "**/*" but only includes files with supported extensions. This preserves the existing behavior.

[DanielRosenwasser]

tsconfig.json

[paulvanbrenk]

Add this file to the tsconfig.json files in src\**\

[rbuckton]

There is no tsconfig.json in either src/harness or tests/cases/unittests

[rbuckton]

@paulvanbrenk, @DanielRosenwasser, @vladima, @ahejlsberg Any comments on this approach?

[paulvanbrenk]

Can you add comments to all these regular expressions.. they are impossible to parse.

[paulvanbrenk]

doesn't this make more sense in sys.ts ?

[rbuckton]

Most of our other path logic exists in core.ts.

[ryasmi]

Need this so badly

[rbuckton]

Odd. All I did was merge from master. I'll check into this shortly.

[glen-84]

What still needs to be done before this can be merged? (other than resolving the conflicts)

[yuit]

We use this map later when including

[glen-84]

@rbuckton Is there any way that TypeScript could expose the globbing logic so that other libraries could easily get the list of files, without having to re-implement all of the rules?

I was trying to implement the include/exclude stuff using globby, but it seems that an exclude entry like node_modules won't work, as it needs to be node_modules/**.

Edit: The use case is getting a list of files for gulp.watch, but I'd imagine that it might be useful for other libraries like gulp-typescript.

Edit 2: Actually getting a list of files isn't really useful, as it won't match files created later. 😞

[nevir]

Curious what the status on this one is

[LPGhatguy]

Why isn't TypeScript using a community-vetted library like minimatch that WILL run in all environments?

Implementing glob and not doing it fully is not as helpful as supporting the standard glob syntax used throughout the JS ecosystem.

[mhegazy]

Why isn't TypeScript using a community-vetted library like minimatch that WILL run in all environments?

The typescript compiler runs in other environments other than node, e.g. web (monaco web editor), VSCode, (uses its own require implementation), VS (chakra), etc.. so dependencies can be tricky.

We are working on getting this done soon. so please bear with us for a bit longer.

[wyntau]

Exciting 😀