Process execution for humans

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Execa runs commands in your script, application or library. Unlike shells, it is optimized for programmatic usage. Built on top of the child_process core module.

• Simple syntax: promises and template strings, like zx.
• Script interface.
• No escaping nor quoting needed. No risk of shell injection.
• Execute locally installed binaries without npx.
• Improved Windows support: shebangs, PATHEXT, graceful termination, and more.
• Detailed errors, verbose mode and custom logging, for debugging.
• Pipe multiple subprocesses better than in shells: retrieve intermediate results, use multiple sources/destinations, unpipe.
• Split the output into text lines, or iterate progressively over them.
• Strip unnecessary newlines.
• Pass any input to the subprocess: files, strings, Uint8Arrays, iterables, objects and almost any other type.
• Return almost any type from the subprocess, or redirect it to files.
• Get interleaved output from stdout and stderr similar to what is printed on the terminal.
• Retrieve the output programmatically and print it on the console at the same time.
• Transform or filter the input and output with simple functions.
• Pass Node.js streams or web streams to subprocesses, or convert subprocesses to a stream.
• Exchange messages with the subprocess.
• Ensure subprocesses exit even when they intercept termination signals, or when the current process ends abruptly.

npm install execa

Execution:

• ▶️ Basic execution
• 💬 Escaping/quoting
• 💻 Shell
• 📜 Scripts
• 🐢 Node.js files
• 🌐 Environment
• ❌ Errors
• 🏁 Termination

Input/output:

• 🎹 Input
• 📢 Output
• 📃 Text lines
• 🤖 Binary data
• 🧙 Transforms

Advanced usage:

• 🔀 Piping multiple subprocesses
• ⏳️ Streams
• 📞 Inter-process communication
• 🐛 Debugging
• 📎