24 KiB
Process execution for humans
Why
This package improves child_process
methods with:
- Promise interface.
- Scripts interface, like
zx
. - Improved Windows support, including shebang binaries.
- Executes locally installed binaries without
npx
. - Cleans up child processes when the parent process ends.
- Graceful termination.
- Get interleaved output from
stdout
andstderr
similar to what is printed on the terminal. - Strips the final newline from the output so you don't have to do
stdout.trim()
. - Convenience methods to pipe processes' input and output.
- Can specify file and arguments as a single string without a shell.
- Verbose mode for debugging.
- More descriptive errors.
- Higher max buffer: 100 MB instead of 1 MB.
Install
npm install execa
Usage
Promise interface
import {execa} from 'execa';
const {stdout} = await execa('echo', ['unicorns']);
console.log(stdout);
//=> 'unicorns'
Scripts interface
For more information about Execa scripts, please see this page.
Basic
import {$} from 'execa';
const branch = await $`git branch --show-current`;
await $`dep deploy --branch=${branch}`;
Multiple arguments
import {$} from 'execa';
const args = ['unicorns', '&', 'rainbows!'];
const {stdout} = await $`echo ${args}`;
console.log(stdout);
//=> 'unicorns & rainbows!'
With options
import {$} from 'execa';
await $({stdio: 'inherit'})`echo unicorns`;
//=> 'unicorns'
Shared options
import {$} from 'execa';
const $$ = $({stdio: 'inherit'});
await $$`echo unicorns`;
//=> 'unicorns'
await $$`echo rainbows`;
//=> 'rainbows'
Verbose mode
> node file.js
unicorns
rainbows
> NODE_DEBUG=execa node file.js
[16:50:03.305] echo unicorns
unicorns
[16:50:03.308] echo rainbows
rainbows
Input/output
Redirect output to a file
import {execa} from 'execa';
// Similar to `echo unicorns > stdout.txt` in Bash
await execa('echo', ['unicorns']).pipeStdout('stdout.txt');
// Similar to `echo unicorns 2> stdout.txt` in Bash
await execa('echo', ['unicorns']).pipeStderr('stderr.txt');
// Similar to `echo unicorns &> stdout.txt` in Bash
await execa('echo', ['unicorns'], {all: true}).pipeAll('all.txt');
Redirect input from a file
import {execa} from 'execa';
// Similar to `cat < stdin.txt` in Bash
const {stdout} = await execa('cat', {inputFile: 'stdin.txt'});
console.log(stdout);
//=> 'unicorns'
Save and pipe output from a child process
import {execa} from 'execa';
const {stdout} = await execa('echo', ['unicorns']).pipeStdout(process.stdout);
// Prints `unicorns`
console.log(stdout);
// Also returns 'unicorns'
Pipe multiple processes
import {execa} from 'execa';
// Similar to `echo unicorns | cat` in Bash
const {stdout} = await execa('echo', ['unicorns']).pipeStdout(execa('cat'));
console.log(stdout);
//=> 'unicorns'
Handling Errors
import {execa} from 'execa';
// Catching an error
try {
await execa('unknown', ['command']);
} catch (error) {
console.log(error);
/*
{
message: 'Command failed with ENOENT: unknown command spawn unknown ENOENT',
errno: -2,
code: 'ENOENT',
syscall: 'spawn unknown',
path: 'unknown',
spawnargs: ['command'],
originalMessage: 'spawn unknown ENOENT',
shortMessage: 'Command failed with ENOENT: unknown command spawn unknown ENOENT',
command: 'unknown command',
escapedCommand: 'unknown command',
stdout: '',
stderr: '',
failed: true,
timedOut: false,
isCanceled: false,
killed: false
}
*/
}
Graceful termination
Using SIGTERM, and after 2 seconds, kill it with SIGKILL.
const subprocess = execa('node');
setTimeout(() => {
subprocess.kill('SIGTERM', {
forceKillAfterTimeout: 2000
});
}, 1000);
API
Methods
execa(file, arguments?, options?)
Executes a command using file ...arguments
. arguments
are specified as an array of strings. Returns a childProcess
.
Arguments are automatically escaped. They can contain any character, including spaces.
This is the preferred method when executing single commands.
execaNode(scriptPath, arguments?, options?)
Executes a Node.js file using node scriptPath ...arguments
. arguments
are specified as an array of strings. Returns a childProcess
.
Arguments are automatically escaped. They can contain any character, including spaces.
This is the preferred method when executing Node.js files.
Like child_process#fork()
:
- the current Node version and options are used. This can be overridden using the
nodePath
andnodeOptions
options. - the
shell
option cannot be used - an extra channel
ipc
is passed tostdio
$`command`
Executes a command. The command
string includes both the file
and its arguments
. Returns a childProcess
.
Arguments are automatically escaped. They can contain any character, but spaces must use ${}
like $`echo ${'has space'}`
.
This is the preferred method when executing multiple commands in a script file.
The command
string can inject any ${value}
with the following types: string, number, childProcess
or an array of those types. For example: $`echo one ${'two'} ${3} ${['four', 'five']}`
. For ${childProcess}
, the process's stdout
is used.
For more information, please see this section and this page.
$(options)
Returns a new instance of $
but with different default options
. Consecutive calls are merged to previous ones.
This can be used to either:
- Set options for a specific command:
$(options)`command`
- Share options for multiple commands:
const $$ = $(options); $$`command`; $$`otherCommand`;
execaCommand(command, options?)
Executes a command. The command
string includes both the file
and its arguments
. Returns a childProcess
.
Arguments are automatically escaped. They can contain any character, but spaces must be escaped with a backslash like execaCommand('echo has\\ space')
.
This is the preferred method when executing a user-supplied command
string, such as in a REPL.
execaSync(file, arguments?, options?)
Same as execa()
but synchronous.
Returns or throws a childProcessResult
.
$.sync`command`
Same as $`command` but synchronous.
Returns or throws a childProcessResult
.
execaCommandSync(command, options?)
Same as execaCommand()
but synchronous.
Returns or throws a childProcessResult
.
Shell syntax
For all the methods above, no shell interpreter (Bash, cmd.exe, etc.) is used unless the shell
option is set. This means shell-specific characters and expressions ($variable
, &&
, ||
, ;
, |
, etc.) have no special meaning and do not need to be escaped.
childProcess
The return value of all asynchronous methods is both:
- a
Promise
resolving or rejecting with achildProcessResult
. - a
child_process
instance with the following additional methods and properties.
kill(signal?, options?)
Same as the original child_process#kill()
except: if signal
is SIGTERM
(the default value) and the child process is not terminated after 5 seconds, force it by sending SIGKILL
.
Note that this graceful termination does not work on Windows, because Windows doesn't support signals (SIGKILL
and SIGTERM
has the same effect of force-killing the process immediately.) If you want to achieve graceful termination on Windows, you have to use other means, such as taskkill
.
options.forceKillAfterTimeout
Type: number | false
Default: 5000
Milliseconds to wait for the child process to terminate before sending SIGKILL
.
Can be disabled with false
.
all
Type: ReadableStream | undefined
Stream combining/interleaving stdout
and stderr
.
This is undefined
if either:
- the
all
option isfalse
(the default value) - both
stdout
andstderr
options are set to'inherit'
,'ipc'
,Stream
orinteger
pipeStdout(target)
Pipe the child process's stdout
to target
, which can be:
- Another
execa()
return value - A writable stream
- A file path string
If the target
is another execa()
return value, it is returned. Otherwise, the original execa()
return value is returned. This allows chaining pipeStdout()
then await
ing the final result.
The stdout
option must be kept as pipe
, its default value.
pipeStderr(target)
Like pipeStdout()
but piping the child process's stderr
instead.
The stderr
option must be kept as pipe
, its default value.
pipeAll(target)
Combines both pipeStdout()
and pipeStderr()
.
Either the stdout
option or the stderr
option must be kept as pipe
, their default value. Also, the all
option must be set to true
.
childProcessResult
Type: object
Result of a child process execution. On success this is a plain object. On failure this is also an Error
instance.
The child process fails when:
- its exit code is not
0
- it was killed with a signal
- timing out
- being canceled
- there's not enough memory or there are already too many child processes
command
Type: string
The file and arguments that were run, for logging purposes.
This is not escaped and should not be executed directly as a process, including using execa()
or execaCommand()
.
escapedCommand
Type: string
Same as command
but escaped.
This is meant to be copy and pasted into a shell, for debugging purposes.
Since the escaping is fairly basic, this should not be executed directly as a process, including using execa()
or execaCommand()
.
exitCode
Type: number
The numeric exit code of the process that was run.
stdout
Type: string | Buffer
The output of the process on stdout.
stderr
Type: string | Buffer
The output of the process on stderr.
all
Type: string | Buffer | undefined
The output of the process with stdout
and stderr
interleaved.
This is undefined
if either:
- the
all
option isfalse
(the default value) execaSync()
was used
failed
Type: boolean
Whether the process failed to run.
timedOut
Type: boolean
Whether the process timed out.
isCanceled
Type: boolean
Whether the process was canceled.
You can cancel the spawned process using the signal
option.
killed
Type: boolean
Whether the process was killed.
signal
Type: string | undefined
The name of the signal that was used to terminate the process. For example, SIGFPE
.
If a signal terminated the process, this property is defined and included in the error message. Otherwise it is undefined
.
signalDescription
Type: string | undefined
A human-friendly description of the signal that was used to terminate the process. For example, Floating point arithmetic error
.
If a signal terminated the process, this property is defined and included in the error message. Otherwise it is undefined
. It is also undefined
when the signal is very uncommon which should seldomly happen.
cwd
Type: string
The cwd
of the command if provided in the command options. Otherwise it is process.cwd()
.
message
Type: string
Error message when the child process failed to run. In addition to the underlying error message, it also contains some information related to why the child process errored.
The child process stderr then stdout are appended to the end, separated with newlines and not interleaved.
shortMessage
Type: string
This is the same as the message
property except it does not include the child process stdout/stderr.
originalMessage
Type: string | undefined
Original error message. This is the same as the message
property except it includes neither the child process stdout/stderr nor some additional information added by Execa.
This is undefined
unless the child process exited due to an error
event or a timeout.
options
Type: object
cleanup
Type: boolean
Default: true
Kill the spawned process when the parent process exits unless either:
- the spawned process is detached
- the parent process is terminated abruptly, for example, with SIGKILL
as opposed to SIGTERM
or a normal exit
preferLocal
Type: boolean
Default: true
with $
, false
otherwise
Prefer locally installed binaries when looking for a binary to execute.
If you $ npm install foo
, you can then execa('foo')
.
localDir
Type: string | URL
Default: process.cwd()
Preferred path to find locally installed binaries in (use with preferLocal
).
execPath
Type: string
Default: process.execPath
(Current Node.js executable)
Path to the Node.js executable to use in child processes.
This can be either an absolute path or a path relative to the cwd
option.
Requires preferLocal
to be true
.
For example, this can be used together with get-node
to run a specific Node.js version in a child process.
buffer
Type: boolean
Default: true
Buffer the output from the spawned process. When set to false
, you must read the output of stdout
and stderr
(or all
if the all
option is true
). Otherwise the returned promise will not be resolved/rejected.
If the spawned process fails, error.stdout
, error.stderr
, and error.all
will contain the buffered data.
input
Type: string | Buffer | stream.Readable
Write some input to the stdin
of your binary.
Streams are not allowed when using the synchronous methods.
If the input is a file, use the inputFile
option instead.
inputFile
Type: string
Use a file as input to the the stdin
of your binary.
If the input is not a file, use the input
option instead.
stdin
Type: string | number | Stream | undefined
Default: inherit
with $
, pipe
otherwise
Same options as stdio
.
stdout
Type: string | number | Stream | undefined
Default: pipe
Same options as stdio
.
stderr
Type: string | number | Stream | undefined
Default: pipe
Same options as stdio
.
all
Type: boolean
Default: false
Add an .all
property on the promise and the resolved value. The property contains the output of the process with stdout
and stderr
interleaved.
reject
Type: boolean
Default: true
Setting this to false
resolves the promise with the error instead of rejecting it.
stripFinalNewline
Type: boolean
Default: true
Strip the final newline character from the output.
extendEnv
Type: boolean
Default: true
Set to false
if you don't want to extend the environment variables when providing the env
property.
Execa also accepts the below options which are the same as the options for child_process#spawn()
/child_process#exec()
cwd
Type: string | URL
Default: process.cwd()
Current working directory of the child process.
env
Type: object
Default: process.env
Environment key-value pairs. Extends automatically from process.env
. Set extendEnv
to false
if you don't want this.
argv0
Type: string
Explicitly set the value of argv[0]
sent to the child process. This will be set to file
if not specified.
stdio
Type: string | string[]
Default: pipe
Child's stdio configuration.
serialization
Type: string
Default: 'json'
Specify the kind of serialization used for sending messages between processes when using the stdio: 'ipc'
option or execaNode()
:
- json
: Uses JSON.stringify()
and JSON.parse()
.
- advanced
: Uses v8.serialize()
detached
Type: boolean
Prepare child to run independently of its parent process. Specific behavior depends on the platform.
uid
Type: number
Sets the user identity of the process.
gid
Type: number
Sets the group identity of the process.
shell
Type: boolean | string
Default: false
If true
, runs file
inside of a shell. Uses /bin/sh
on UNIX and cmd.exe
on Windows. A different shell can be specified as a string. The shell should understand the -c
switch on UNIX or /d /s /c
on Windows.
We recommend against using this option since it is:
- not cross-platform, encouraging shell-specific syntax.
- slower, because of the additional shell interpretation.
- unsafe, potentially allowing command injection.
encoding
Type: string | null
Default: utf8
Specify the character encoding used to decode the stdout
and stderr
output. If set to null
, then stdout
and stderr
will be a Buffer
instead of a string.
timeout
Type: number
Default: 0
If timeout is greater than 0
, the parent will send the signal identified by the killSignal
property (the default is SIGTERM
) if the child runs longer than timeout milliseconds.
maxBuffer
Type: number
Default: 100_000_000
(100 MB)
Largest amount of data in bytes allowed on stdout
or stderr
.
killSignal
Type: string | number
Default: SIGTERM
Signal value to be used when the spawned process will be killed.
signal
Type: AbortSignal
You can abort the spawned process using AbortController
.
When AbortController.abort()
is called, .isCanceled
becomes false
.
Requires Node.js 16 or later.
windowsVerbatimArguments
Type: boolean
Default: false
If true
, no quoting or escaping of arguments is done on Windows. Ignored on other platforms. This is set to true
automatically when the shell
option is true
.
windowsHide
Type: boolean
Default: true
On Windows, do not create a new console window. Please note this also prevents CTRL-C
from working on Windows.
verbose
Type: boolean
Default: false
Print each command on stderr
before executing it.
This can also be enabled by setting the NODE_DEBUG=execa
environment variable in the current process.
nodePath (For .node()
only)
Type: string
Default: process.execPath
Node.js executable used to create the child process.
nodeOptions (For .node()
only)
Type: string[]
Default: process.execArgv
List of CLI options passed to the Node.js executable.
Tips
Retry on error
Gracefully handle failures by using automatic retries and exponential backoff with the p-retry
package:
import pRetry from 'p-retry';
const run = async () => {
const results = await execa('curl', ['-sSL', 'https://sindresorhus.com/unicorn']);
return results;
};
console.log(await pRetry(run, {retries: 5}));
Cancelling a spawned process
import {execa} from 'execa';
const abortController = new AbortController();
const subprocess = execa('node', [], {signal: abortController.signal});
setTimeout(() => {
abortController.abort();
}, 1000);
try {
await subprocess;
} catch (error) {
console.log(subprocess.killed); // true
console.log(error.isCanceled); // true
}
Execute the current package's binary
import {getBinPath} from 'get-bin-path';
const binPath = await getBinPath();
await execa(binPath);
execa
can be combined with get-bin-path
to test the current package's binary. As opposed to hard-coding the path to the binary, this validates that the package.json
bin
field is correctly set up.
Related
- gulp-execa - Gulp plugin for
execa
- nvexeca - Run
execa
using any Node.js version - sudo-prompt - Run commands with elevated privileges.
Maintainers
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