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 accomplis

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);
    });