spawn-command

What is spawn-command?

The spawn-command npm package is a simple wrapper around the child_process.spawn function from Node.js. It allows you to spawn shell commands with ease, handling the intricacies of different operating system command line interfaces. It is particularly useful for running shell commands within Node.js applications.

What are spawn-command's main functionalities?

Spawning shell commands

This feature allows you to spawn a shell command and listen to its output. The example shows how to spawn an 'echo' command and log its output to the console.

const spawnCommand = require('spawn-command');
const child = spawnCommand('echo Hello World');
child.stdout.on('data', function (data) {
  console.log('stdout: ' + data);
});

Handling command completion

This feature allows you to handle the completion of a shell command. The example demonstrates how to spawn a 'ls -la' command and log the exit code once the command completes.

const spawnCommand = require('spawn-command');
const child = spawnCommand('ls -la');
child.on('close', function (code) {
  console.log('child process exited with code ' + code);
});

Other packages similar to spawn-command

child_process

This is a core Node.js module that provides the ability to spawn subprocesses. It is more complex and lower-level than spawn-command, but it offers more control and flexibility.

execa

Execa is a popular npm package that provides a better user experience than the default child_process module. It supports synchronous and asynchronous execution, returns a promise, and has better support for Windows command line parsing.

cross-spawn

Cross-spawn is an npm package that aims to provide a cross-platform solution for spawning shell commands. It handles command line argument escaping and path issues on Windows, making it more robust than spawn-command for complex use cases.

README

spawn-command

Spawn commands like child_process.exec does but return a ChildProcess.

Installation

npm install spawn-command

Usage

var spawnCommand = require('spawn-command'),
    child = spawnCommand('echo "Hello spawn" | base64');

child.on('stdout', function (data) {
  console.log('data', data);
});

child.on('exit', function (exitCode) {
  console.log('exit', exitCode);
});