How to promisify Node's child_process.exec and child_process.execFile functions with Bluebird?
Javascriptnode.jsPromiseBluebirdJavascript Problem Overview
I'm using the Bluebird promise library under Node.js, it's great! But I have a question:
If you take a look at the documentation of Node's child_process.exec and child_process.execFile you can see that both of these functions are returning a ChildProcess object.
So what's the recommended way to promisify such functions?
Note that the following works (I get a Promise object):
var Promise = require('bluebird');
var execAsync = Promise.promisify(require('child_process').exec);
var execFileAsync = Promise.promisify(require('child_process').execFile);
But how can one get access to the original return value of the original Node.js functions? (In these cases I would need to be able to access the originally returned ChildProcess objects.)
Any suggestion would be appreciated!
EDIT:
Here is an example code which is using the return value of the child_process.exec function:
var exec = require('child_process').exec;
var child = exec('node ./commands/server.js');
child.stdout.on('data', function(data) {
console.log('stdout: ' + data);
});
child.stderr.on('data', function(data) {
console.log('stderr: ' + data);
});
child.on('close', function(code) {
console.log('closing code: ' + code);
});
But if I would use the promisified version of the exec function ( execAsync from above ) then the return value will be a promise, not a ChildProcess object. This is the real problem I am talking about.
Javascript Solutions
Solution 1 - Javascript
I would recommend using standard JS promises built into the language over an additional library dependency like Bluebird.
If you're using Node 10+, the Node.js docs recommend using util.promisify
which returns a Promise<{ stdout, stderr }>
object. See an example below:
const util = require('util');
const exec = util.promisify(require('child_process').exec);
async function lsExample() {
try {
const { stdout, stderr } = await exec('ls');
console.log('stdout:', stdout);
console.log('stderr:', stderr);
} catch (e) {
console.error(e); // should contain code (exit code) and signal (that caused the termination).
}
}
lsExample()
Handle errors first from stderr
.
Solution 2 - Javascript
It sounds like you'd like to return two things from the call:
- the ChildProcess
- a promise that resolves when the ChildProcess completes
So "the recommended way to promisify such functions"? Don't.
You're outside the convention. Promise returning functions are expected to return a promise, and that's it. You could return an object with two members (the ChildProcess & the promise), but that'll just confuse people.
I'd suggest calling the unpromisified function, and creating a promise based off the returned childProcess. (Maybe wrap that into a helper function)
This way, it's quite explicit for the next person who reads the code.
Something like:
var Promise = require('bluebird');
var exec = require('child_process').execFile;
function promiseFromChildProcess(child) {
return new Promise(function (resolve, reject) {
child.addListener("error", reject);
child.addListener("exit", resolve);
});
}
var child = exec('ls');
promiseFromChildProcess(child).then(function (result) {
console.log('promise complete: ' + result);
}, function (err) {
console.log('promise rejected: ' + err);
});
child.stdout.on('data', function (data) {
console.log('stdout: ' + data);
});
child.stderr.on('data', function (data) {
console.log('stderr: ' + data);
});
child.on('close', function (code) {
console.log('closing code: ' + code);
});
If you're just wanting to promisify specifically child_process.exec()
and child_process.execFile()
, in recent node versions there is a better answer here.
Solution 3 - Javascript
Since Node v12 the built-in util.promisify
allows access to the ChildProcess
object in the returned Promise
for built-in functions where it would have been returned by the un-promisified call. From the docs:
> The returned ChildProcess
instance is attached to the Promise
as a child
property.
This correctly and simply satisfies the need to access ChildProcess
in the original question and makes other answers out of date providing that Node v12+ can be used.
Adapting the example (and concise style) provided by the questioner, access to the ChildProcess
can be achieved like:
const util = require('util');
const exec = util.promisify(require('child_process').exec);
const promise = exec('node ./commands/server.js');
const child = promise.child;
child.stdout.on('data', function(data) {
console.log('stdout: ' + data);
});
child.stderr.on('data', function(data) {
console.log('stderr: ' + data);
});
child.on('close', function(code) {
console.log('closing code: ' + code);
});
// i.e. can then await for promisified exec call to complete
const { stdout, stderr } = await promise;
Solution 4 - Javascript
Here's another way:
function execPromise(command) {
return new Promise(function(resolve, reject) {
exec(command, (error, stdout, stderr) => {
if (error) {
reject(error);
return;
}
resolve(stdout.trim());
});
});
}
Use the function:
execPromise(command).then(function(result) {
console.log(result);
}).catch(function(e) {
console.error(e.message);
});
Or with async/await:
try {
var result = await execPromise(command);
} catch (e) {
console.error(e.message);
}
Solution 5 - Javascript
There's probably not a way to do nicely that covers all use cases. But for limited cases, you can do something like this:
/**
* Promisified child_process.exec
*
* @param cmd
* @param opts See child_process.exec node docs
* @param {stream.Writable} opts.stdout If defined, child process stdout will be piped to it.
* @param {stream.Writable} opts.stderr If defined, child process stderr will be piped to it.
*
* @returns {Promise<{ stdout: string, stderr: stderr }>}
*/
function execp(cmd, opts) {
opts || (opts = {});
return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
const child = exec(cmd, opts,
(err, stdout, stderr) => err ? reject(err) : resolve({
stdout: stdout,
stderr: stderr
}));
if (opts.stdout) {
child.stdout.pipe(opts.stdout);
}
if (opts.stderr) {
child.stderr.pipe(opts.stderr);
}
});
}
This accepts opts.stdout
and opts.stderr
arguments, so that stdio can be captured from the child process.
For example:
execp('ls ./', {
stdout: new stream.Writable({
write: (chunk, enc, next) => {
console.log(chunk.toString(enc));
next();
}
}),
stderr: new stream.Writable({
write: (chunk, enc, next) => {
console.error(chunk.toString(enc));
next();
}
})
}).then(() => console.log('done!'));
Or simply:
execp('ls ./', {
stdout: process.stdout,
stderr: process.stderr
}).then(() => console.log('done!'));
Solution 6 - Javascript
Just want to mention that there's a nice tool that will solve your problem completely:
https://www.npmjs.com/package/core-worker
This package makes it a lot easier to handle processes.
import { process } from "CoreWorker";
import fs from "fs";
const result = await process("node Server.js", "Server is ready.").ready(1000);
const result = await process("cp path/to/file /newLocation/newFile").death();
or combine these functions:
import { process } from "core-worker";
const simpleChat = process("node chat.js", "Chat ready");
setTimeout(() => simpleChat.kill(), 360000); // wait an hour and close the chat
simpleChat.ready(500)
.then(console.log.bind(console, "You are now able to send messages."))
.then(::simpleChat.death)
.then(console.log.bind(console, "Chat closed"))
.catch(() => /* handle err */);
Solution 7 - Javascript
Here are my two cents. Uses spawn which streams the output and writes to stdout
and stderr
. The error and standard output is captured in buffers and are returned or rejected.
This is written I Typescript, feel free to remove typings if using JavaScript:
import { spawn, SpawnOptionsWithoutStdio } from 'child_process'
const spawnAsync = async (
command: string,
options?: SpawnOptionsWithoutStdio
) =>
new Promise<Buffer>((resolve, reject) => {
const [spawnCommand, ...args] = command.split(/\s+/);
const spawnProcess = spawn(spawnCommand, args, options);
const chunks: Buffer[] = [];
const errorChunks: Buffer[] = [];
spawnProcess.stdout.on("data", (data) => {
process.stdout.write(data.toString());
chunks.push(data);
});
spawnProcess.stderr.on("data", (data) => {
process.stderr.write(data.toString());
errorChunks.push(data);
});
spawnProcess.on("error", (error) => {
reject(error);
});
spawnProcess.on("close", (code) => {
if (code === 1) {
reject(Buffer.concat(errorChunks).toString());
return;
}
resolve(Buffer.concat(chunks));
});
});
Solution 8 - Javascript
Here's mine. It doesn't deal with stdin or stdout, so if you need those then use one of the other answers on this page. :)
// promisify `child_process`
// This is a very nice trick :-)
this.promiseFromChildProcess = function (child) {
return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
child.addListener('error', (code, signal) => {
console.log('ChildProcess error', code, signal);
reject(code);
});
child.addListener('exit', (code, signal) => {
if (code === 0) {
resolve(code);
} else {
console.log('ChildProcess error', code, signal);
reject(code);
}
});
});
};
Solution 9 - Javascript
Just another example you might run into issues when running multiple commands when destructuring with the same const's you can rename them like this.
const util = require('util');
const exec = util.promisify(require('child_process').exec);
async function runCommands() {
try {
const { stdout, stderr } = await exec('ls');
console.log('stdout:', stdout);
console.log('stderr:', stderr);
const { stdout: stdoutTwo, stderr: stderrTwo } = await exec('ls');
console.log('stdoutTwo:', stdoutTwo);
console.log('stderrTwo:', stderrTwo);
const { stdout: stdoutThree, stderr: stderrThree } = await exec('ls');
console.log('stdoutThree:', stdoutThree);
console.log('stderrThree:', stderrThree);
} catch (e) {
console.error(e); // should contain code (exit code) and signal (that caused the termination).
}
}
runCommands()