I am looking for a way to get a list of all resource names from a given classpath directory, something like a method List<String> getResourceNames (String directoryName).

For example, given a classpath directory x/y/z containing files a.html, b.html, c.html and a subdirectory d, getResourceNames("x/y/z") should return a List<String> containing the following strings:['a.html', 'b.html', 'c.html', 'd'].

It should work both for resources in filesystem and jars.

I know that I can write a quick snippet with Files, JarFiles and URLs, but I do not want to reinvent the wheel. My question is, given existing publicly available libraries, what is the quickest way to implement getResourceNames? Spring and Apache Commons stacks are both feasible.

Custom Scanner

Implement your own scanner. For example:

(limitations of this solution are mentioned in the comments)

private List<String> getResourceFiles(String path) throws IOException {
    List<String> filenames = new ArrayList<>();

    try (
            InputStream in = getResourceAsStream(path);
            BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(in))) {
        String resource;

        while ((resource = br.readLine()) != null) {
            filenames.add(resource);
        }
    }

    return filenames;
}

private InputStream getResourceAsStream(String resource) {
    final InputStream in
            = getContextClassLoader().getResourceAsStream(resource);

    return in == null ? getClass().getResourceAsStream(resource) : in;
}

private ClassLoader getContextClassLoader() {
    return Thread.currentThread().getContextClassLoader();
}

Spring Framework

Use PathMatchingResourcePatternResolver from Spring Framework.

Ronmamo Reflections

The other techniques might be slow at runtime for huge CLASSPATH values. A faster solution is to use ronmamo's Reflections API, which precompiles the search at compile time.