[javascript] node.js execute system command synchronously

I need in node.js function

result = execSync('node -v');

that will synchronously execute the given command line and return all stdout'ed by that command text.

ps. Sync is wrong. I know. Just for personal use.

UPDATE

Now we have mgutz's solution which gives us exit code, but not stdout! Still waiting for a more precise answer.

UPDATE

mgutz updated his answer and the solution is here :)
Also, as dgo.a mentioned, there is stand-alone module exec-sync

UPDATE 2014-07-30

ShellJS lib arrived. Consider this is the best choice for now.

UPDATE 2015-02-10

AT LAST! NodeJS 0.12 supports execSync natively.
See official docs

You can achieve this using fibers. For example, using my Common Node library, the code would look like this:

result = require('subprocess').command('node -v');

There's an excellent module for flow control in node.js called asyncblock. If wrapping the code in a function is OK for your case, the following sample may be considered:

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

asyncblock(function (flow) {
    exec('node -v', flow.add());
    result = flow.wait();
    console.log(result);    // There'll be trailing \n in the output

    // Some other jobs
    console.log('More results like if it were sync...');
});

Just to add that even though there are few usecases where you should use them, spawnSync / execFileSync / execSync were added to node.js in these commits: https://github.com/joyent/node/compare/d58c206862dc...e8df2676748e

you can do synchronous shell operations in nodejs like so:

var execSync = function(cmd) {

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

    //for linux use ; instead of &&
    //execute your command followed by a simple echo 
    //to file to indicate process is finished
    exec(cmd + " > c:\\stdout.txt && echo done > c:\\sync.txt");

    while (true) {
        //consider a timeout option to prevent infinite loop
        //NOTE: this will max out your cpu too!
        try {
            var status = fs.readFileSync('c:\\sync.txt', 'utf8');

            if (status.trim() == "done") {
                var res = fs.readFileSync("c:\\stdout.txt", 'utf8');
                fs.unlinkSync("c:\\stdout.txt"); //cleanup temp files
                fs.unlinkSync("c:\\sync.txt");
                return res;
            }
        } catch(e) { } //readFileSync will fail until file exists
    }

};

//won't return anything, but will take 10 seconds to run
console.log(execSync("sleep 10")); 

//assuming there are a lot of files and subdirectories, 
//this too may take a while, use your own applicable file path
console.log(execSync("dir /s c:\\usr\\docs\\"));

EDIT - this example is meant for windows environments, adjust for your own linux needs if necessary

This is not possible in Node.js, both child_process.spawn and child_process.exec were built from the ground up to be async.

For details see: https://github.com/ry/node/blob/master/lib/child_process.js

If you really want to have this blocking, then put everything that needs to happen afterwards in a callback, or build your own queue to handle this in a blocking fashion, I suppose you could use Async.js for this task.

Or, in case you have way too much time to spend, hack around in Node.js it self.

Use ShellJS module.

exec function without providing callback.

Example:

var version = exec('node -v').output;

This is the easiest way I found:

exec-Sync: https://github.com/jeremyfa/node-exec-sync
(Not to be confused with execSync.)
Execute shell command synchronously. Use this for migration scripts, cli programs, but not for regular server code.

Example:

var execSync = require('exec-sync');   
var user = execSync('echo $USER');
console.log(user);

I get used to implement "synchronous" stuff at the end of the callback function. Not very nice, but it works. If you need to implement a sequence of command line executions you need to wrap exec into some named function and recursively call it. This pattern seem to be usable for me:

SeqOfExec(someParam);

function SeqOfExec(somepParam) {
    // some stuff
    // .....
    // .....

    var execStr = "yourExecString";
    child_proc.exec(execStr, function (error, stdout, stderr) {
        if (error != null) {
            if (stdout) {
                throw Error("Smth goes wrong" + error);
            } else {
                // consider that empty stdout causes
                // creation of error object
            }
        }
        // some stuff
        // .....
        // .....

        // you also need some flag which will signal that you 
        // need to end loop
        if (someFlag ) {
            // your synch stuff after all execs
            // here
            // .....
        } else {
            SeqOfExec(someAnotherParam);
        }
    });
};

See execSync library.

It's fairly easy to do with node-ffi. I wouldn't recommend for server processes, but for general development utilities it gets things done. Install the library.

npm install node-ffi

Example script:

var FFI = require("node-ffi");
var libc = new FFI.Library(null, {
  "system": ["int32", ["string"]]
});

var run = libc.system;
run("echo $USER");

[EDIT Jun 2012: How to get STDOUT]

var lib = ffi.Library(null, {
    // FILE* popen(char* cmd, char* mode);
    popen: ['pointer', ['string', 'string']],

    // void pclose(FILE* fp);
    pclose: ['void', [ 'pointer']],

    // char* fgets(char* buff, int buff, in)
    fgets: ['string', ['string', 'int','pointer']]
});

function execSync(cmd) {
  var
    buffer = new Buffer(1024),
    result = "",
    fp = lib.popen(cmd, 'r');

  if (!fp) throw new Error('execSync error: '+cmd);

  while(lib.fgets(buffer, 1024, fp)) {
    result += buffer.readCString();
  };
  lib.pclose(fp);

  return result;
}

console.log(execSync('echo $HOME'));

I actually had a situation where I needed to run multiple commands one after another from a package.json preinstall script in a way that would work on both Windows and Linux/OSX, so I couldn't rely on a non-core module.

So this is what I came up with:

#cmds.coffee
childproc = require 'child_process'

exports.exec = (cmds) ->
  next = ->
    if cmds.length > 0
      cmd = cmds.shift()
      console.log "Running command: #{cmd}"
      childproc.exec cmd, (err, stdout, stderr) ->
        if err? then console.log err
        if stdout? then console.log stdout
        if stderr? then console.log stderr
        next()
    else
      console.log "Done executing commands."

  console.log "Running the follows commands:"
  console.log cmds
  next()

You can use it like this:

require('./cmds').exec ['grunt coffee', 'nodeunit test/tls-config.js']

EDIT: as pointed out, this doesn't actually return the output or allow you to use the result of the commands in a Node program. One other idea for that is to use LiveScript backcalls. http://livescript.net/

I had a similar problem and I ended up writing a node extension for this. You can check out the git repository. It's open source and free and all that good stuff !

https://github.com/aponxi/npm-execxi

ExecXI is a node extension written in C++ to execute shell commands one by one, outputting the command's output to the console in real-time. Optional chained, and unchained ways are present; meaning that you can choose to stop the script after a command fails (chained), or you can continue as if nothing has happened !

Usage instructions are in the ReadMe file. Feel free to make pull requests or submit issues!

EDIT: However it doesn't return the stdout yet... Just outputs them in real-time. It does now. Well, I just released it today. Maybe we can build on it.

Anyway, I thought it was worth to mention it.

Native Node.js solution is:

const {execSync} = require('child_process');

const result = execSync('node -v'); //  this do the trick 

Just be aware that some commands returns Buffer instead of string. And if you need string just add encoding to execSync options:

const result = execSync('git rev-parse HEAD', {encoding: 'utf8'});

... and it is also good to have timeout on sync exec:

const result = execSync('git rev-parse HEAD', {encoding: 'utf8', timeout: 10000});