Open Terminal and execute CLI commands via JS / NodeJS

Question

Is there any way/code snippet through which we can open Ubuntu terminal and execute terminal commands through JavaScript / Node.js or any UI based language?

Could you elaborate on your request? Do you mean that from JavaScript, is there a command to open a terminal window? Or is there a way -- from any language -- to open a terminal window? Or perhaps you mean to run shell commands, without necessarily opening a terminal window? From Node.js or other programs with access to OS processes, the answer is yes. From JavaScript in the browser, the answer is no. — Billy Brown
– Billy Brown, Commented Dec 3, 2018 at 16:29
So i need to build a UI and based on UI input parameters, I need to run I need to perform terminal based commands/shell commands. Is there a way to perform it? — Abhishek Jagwani
– Abhishek Jagwani, Commented Dec 3, 2018 at 16:34
Yes: from Node JS you can call shell commands answer here and another here. The basic idea is to open a new process and run a command in it. — Billy Brown
– Billy Brown, Commented Dec 3, 2018 at 16:36

TOPKAT · Accepted Answer · 2022-06-11 12:30:24Z

2

You can run any shell command from nodeJs via the childProcess native API (witout installing any dependencies)

Simple way

var { exec } = require('child_process'); // native in nodeJs

const childProcess = exec('git pull');

Snippet to handle logs and errors

I often have a bunch of cli commands to process, so I've created this simple helper. It handle errors, exit and can be awaited in your scripts to match different scenarios

async function execWaitForOutput(command, execOptions = {}) {
    return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
        const childProcess = exec(command, execOptions);

        // stream process output to console
        childProcess.stderr.on('data', data => console.error(data));
        childProcess.stdout.on('data', data => console.log(data));
        // handle exit
        childProcess.on('exit', () => resolve());
        childProcess.on('close', () => resolve());
        // handle errors
        childProcess.on('error', error => reject(error));
    })
}

That I can use like:

await execWaitForOutput('git pull');
// then
await execWaitForOutput('git pull origin master');
// ...etc

edited Jun 11, 2022 at 12:30

answered Aug 7, 2020 at 11:04

TOPKAT

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2 Comments

HolyRandom Over a year ago

Hi, is there any way to send another command after the first one?

TOPKAT Over a year ago

@HolyRandom yes sure, see the last example

AndoGhevian · Accepted Answer · 2020-08-28 12:16:56Z

1

You can use this module - OpenTerm. It opens new Virtual Terminal in cross platform way and execute command:

const { VTexec } = require('open-term')
VTexec('help') // Runs "help" command.

edited Aug 28, 2020 at 12:16

answered Aug 28, 2020 at 11:47

AndoGhevian

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Comments

sadrzadehsina · Accepted Answer · 2018-12-03 16:32:56Z

0

Have a look at this node module.

https://github.com/shelljs/shelljs#examples

answered Dec 3, 2018 at 16:32

sadrzadehsina

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