Execute and get the output of a shell command in node.js

Question

In a node.js, I\'d like to find a way to obtain the output of a Unix terminal command. Is there any way to do this?

function getCommandOutput(commandString){         


        

Answer 1

You're looking for child_process

var exec = require('child_process').exec;
var child;

child = exec(command,
   function (error, stdout, stderr) {
      console.log('stdout: ' + stdout);
      console.log('stderr: ' + stderr);
      if (error !== null) {
          console.log('exec error: ' + error);
      }
   });

---

As pointed out by Renato, there are some synchronous exec packages out there now too, see sync-exec that might be more what yo're looking for. Keep in mind though, node.js is designed to be a single threaded high performance network server, so if that's what you're looking to use it for, stay away from sync-exec kinda stuff unless you're only using it during startup or something.