Executing JavaScript without a browser

Question

I am looking into Javascript programming without a browser  I want to run scripts from the Linux or Mac OS X command line  much like we run any other scripting language  ruby  php  perl  python        javascript my javascript code js   I looked into spider monkey  Mozilla  and v8  Google   but both of these appear to be embedded     Is anyone using Javascript as a scripting language to be executed from the command line   If anyone is curious why I am looking into this  I ve been poking around node js   The performance of node js makes me wonder if javascript may be a viable scripting language for processing large data

User · Accepted Answer

I found this related question on the topic, but if you want direct links, here they are:

You can install Rhino as others have pointed out. This post shows an easy way to get it up and running and how to alias a command to invoke it easily
If you're on a Mac, you can use JavaScriptCore, which invokes WebKit's JavaScript engine. Here's a post on it
You can use Chome/Google's V8 interpreter as well. Here are instructions
The JavaScript as OSA is interesting because it lets you (AFAIK) interact with scriptable OS X apps as though you were in AppleScript (without the terrible syntax)

I'm surprised node.js doesn't come with a shell, but I guess it's really more like an epoll/selector-based callback/event-oriented webserver, so perhaps it doesn't need the full JS feature set, but I'm not too familiar with its inner workings.

Since you seem interested in node.js and since it's based on V8, it might be best to follow those instructions on getting a V8 environment set up so you can have a consistent basis for your JavaScript programming (I should hope JSC and V8 are mostly the same, but I'm not sure).

User · Answer

JSDB  available for Linux  Windows  and Mac should fit the bill pretty well   It uses Mozilla s Spidermonkey Javascript engine and seems to be less of a hassle to install compared to node js  at least last time I tried node js a couple of years ago    I found JSDB from this interesting list of Javascript shells  https   developer mozilla org en-US docs Web JavaScript Shells

User · Answer

Main Answer  Yes  to answer your question  it is possible to use JavaScript as a  regular  scripting language from the command line  without a browser  Since others have not mentioned it yet  I see that it is worth mentioning   On Debian-based systems  and this includes Ubuntu  Linux Mint  and aptosid sidux  at least   besides the options of installing Rhino and others already mentioned  you have have other options    Install the libmozjs-24-bin package  which will provide you with Mozilla s Spidermonkey engine on the command line as a simple js24  which can be used also as an interactive interpreter   The 24 in the name means that it corresponds to version 24 of Firefox   Install the libv8-dev package  which will provide you Google s V8 engine  It has  as one of its examples  the file  usr share doc libv8-dev examples shell cc gz which you can uncompress and compile very simply  e g   g   -Os shell cc -o shell -lv8   Install the package nodejs and it will be available both as the executable nodejs and as an alternative  in the Debian-sense  to provide the js executable  JIT compilation is provided as a courtesy of V8  Install the package libjavascriptcoregtk-3 0-bin and use WebKit s JavaScriptCore interpreter  jsc  as a regular interpreter from the command-line  And this is without needing to have access to a Mac  On many platforms  e g   x86 and x86 64   this interpreter will come with a JIT compiler    So  with almost no compilation you will have three of the heavy-weight JavaScript engines at your disposal   Addendum  Once you have things installed  you can simply create files with the    usr bin js shebang line and things will just work     cat foo js     usr bin js  console log  Hello  world       ls -lAF  usr bin js  etc alternatives js  usr bin nodejs lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root      15 Jul 16 04 26  etc alternatives js - gt   usr bin nodejs  lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root      20 Jul 16 04 26  usr bin js - gt   etc alternatives js  -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 1422004 Apr 28 20 31  usr bin nodejs    chmod a x foo js      foo js  Hello  world    js   foo js Hello  world

User · Answer

I have installed Node js on an iMac and   node somefile js   in bash will work

User · Answer

You may want to check out Rhino   The Rhino Shell provides a way to run JavaScript scripts in batch mode   java org mozilla javascript tools shell Main my javascript code js  args

User · Answer

I found this really nifty open source ECMAScript compliant JS Engine completely written in C called duktape  Duktape is an embeddable Javascript engine  with a focus on portability and compact footprint   Good luck

User · Answer

I use Ubuntu 12 10 and js from commandline  It is available with my installation of java   el apollo   foo  java -version java version  1 6 0 27  el apollo   foo  which js  usr bin js   Some examples   el apollo   foo  js  gt  5 5   gt  console log  hello    hello undefined   gt  var f   function    console log  derp       undefined  gt  f    derp   gt  var mybool   new Boolean    undefined  gt  mybool     gt  mybool    true false  gt  mybool    false true   gt  var myobj       undefined  gt  myobj skipper    on my mark  engage    on my mark  engage    gt  myobj skipper split          on      my      mark       engage       The sky is the limit  then keep right on going

User · Answer

PhantomJS allows you to do this as well  http   phantomjs org

User · Answer

FWIW  node js comes with a shell  try typing in   node-repl   once you ve installed node js to see it in action  It s pretty standard to install rlwrap to get it to work nicely

User · Answer

Well there is JavaScript as OSA  an extension that provides JavaScript as an alternative to appleScript  I ve been using that about 10 years ago  don t know if it s still working with current OS versions

User · Answer

Since nobody mentioned it  Since Java 1 6 The Java JDK  also comes bundled with a JavaScript commandline and REPL   It is based on Rhino  https   developer mozilla org en docs Rhino  In Java 1 6 and 1 7 the command is called jrunscript  jrunscript exe on Windows  and can be found in the bin folder of the JDK   Starting from Java 1 8 there is bundled a new JavaScript implementation  Nashorn  https   blogs oracle com nashorn    So in Java 1 8 the command is called jjs  jjs exe on Windows

User · Answer

I know you asked about Linux and Mac   I am going to provide the answer for Windows  in case other people who are interested in Windows find your question     Windows includes a Javascript engine that can be used from the command line     All versions of Windows  since Windows 98  have included something called  The Windows Script Host   It s a windows-standard way to support script  engines    Since the first release  WSH supports JScript  Microsoft s version of Javascript  Among other things  this means that  from a windows command line  you can just invoke the name of any   js file  and it will run in the JScript engine   via either wscript exe or cscript exe      You can see this question   What is the ProgId or CLSID for IE9  39 s Javascript engine  code-named  quot Chakra quot   to learn how to invoke the higher-performance IE9 Javascript engine from cscript exe

User · Answer

I know this is old but you should also try Zombie js  A headless browser which is insanely fast and ideal for testing

[javascript] Executing JavaScript without a browser?

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