Execute a command line binary with Node.js

Question

I am in the process of porting a CLI library from Ruby over to Node.js. In my code I execute several third party binaries when necessary. I am not sure how best to accomplish this in Node.

Here's an example in Ruby where I call PrinceXML to convert a file to a PDF:

cmd = system("prince -v builds/pdf/book.html -o builds/pdf/book.pdf")

What is the equivalent code in Node?

Answer 1

If you don't mind a dependency and want to use promises, child-process-promise works:

installation

npm install child-process-promise --save

exec Usage

var exec = require('child-process-promise').exec;

exec('echo hello')
    .then(function (result) {
        var stdout = result.stdout;
        var stderr = result.stderr;
        console.log('stdout: ', stdout);
        console.log('stderr: ', stderr);
    })
    .catch(function (err) {
        console.error('ERROR: ', err);
    });

spawn usage

var spawn = require('child-process-promise').spawn;

var promise = spawn('echo', ['hello']);

var childProcess = promise.childProcess;

console.log('[spawn] childProcess.pid: ', childProcess.pid);
childProcess.stdout.on('data', function (data) {
    console.log('[spawn] stdout: ', data.toString());
});
childProcess.stderr.on('data', function (data) {
    console.log('[spawn] stderr: ', data.toString());
});

promise.then(function () {
        console.log('[spawn] done!');
    })
    .catch(function (err) {
        console.error('[spawn] ERROR: ', err);
    });

Answer 2

@hexacyanide's answer is almost a complete one. On Windows command prince could be prince.exe, prince.cmd, prince.bat or just prince (I'm no aware of how gems are bundled, but npm bins come with a sh script and a batch script - npm and npm.cmd). If you want to write a portable script that would run on Unix and Windows, you have to spawn the right executable.

Here is a simple yet portable spawn function:

function spawn(cmd, args, opt) {
    var isWindows = /win/.test(process.platform);

    if ( isWindows ) {
        if ( !args ) args = [];
        args.unshift(cmd);
        args.unshift('/c');
        cmd = process.env.comspec;
    }

    return child_process.spawn(cmd, args, opt);
}

var cmd = spawn("prince", ["-v", "builds/pdf/book.html", "-o", "builds/pdf/book.pdf"])

// Use these props to get execution results:
// cmd.stdin;
// cmd.stdout;
// cmd.stderr;

Answer 3

const exec = require("child_process").exec
exec("ls", (error, stdout, stderr) => {
 //do whatever here
})