Node.js v19.9.0 documentation

Asynchronous process creation#

The child_process.spawn(), child_process.fork(), child_process.exec(), and child_process.execFile() methods all follow the idiomatic asynchronous programming pattern typical of other Node.js APIs.

Each of the methods returns a ChildProcess instance. These objects implement the Node.js EventEmitter API, allowing the parent process to register listener functions that are called when certain events occur during the life cycle of the child process.

The child_process.exec() and child_process.execFile() methods additionally allow for an optional callback function to be specified that is invoked when the child process terminates.

Spawning .bat and .cmd files on Windows#

The importance of the distinction between child_process.exec() and child_process.execFile() can vary based on platform. On Unix-type operating systems (Unix, Linux, macOS) child_process.execFile() can be more efficient because it does not spawn a shell by default. On Windows, however, .bat and .cmd files are not executable on their own without a terminal, and therefore cannot be launched using child_process.execFile(). When running on Windows, .bat and .cmd files can be invoked using child_process.spawn() with the shell option set, with child_process.exec(), or by spawning cmd.exe and passing the .bat or .cmd file as an argument (which is what the shell option and child_process.exec() do). In any case, if the script filename contains spaces it needs to be quoted.

// On Windows Only...
const { spawn } = require('node:child_process');
const bat = spawn('cmd.exe', ['/c', 'my.bat']);

bat.stdout.on('data', (data) => {
  console.log(data.toString());
});

bat.stderr.on('data', (data) => {
  console.error(data.toString());
});

bat.on('exit', (code) => {
  console.log(`Child exited with code ${code}`);
}); copy

// OR...
const { exec, spawn } = require('node:child_process');
exec('my.bat', (err, stdout, stderr) => {
  if (err) {
    console.error(err);
    return;
  }
  console.log(stdout);
});

// Script with spaces in the filename:
const bat = spawn('"my script.cmd"', ['a', 'b'], { shell: true });
// or:
exec('"my script.cmd" a b', (err, stdout, stderr) => {
  // ...
}); copy

child_process.exec(command[, options][, callback])#

• command <string> The command to run, with space-separated arguments.
• options <Object>
  • cwd <string> | <URL> Current working directory of the child process. Default: process.cwd().
  • env <Object> Environment key-value pairs. Default: process.env.
  • encoding <string> Default: 'utf8'
  • shell <string> Shell to execute the command with. See Shell requirements and Default Windows shell. Default: '/bin/sh' on Unix, process.env.ComSpec on Windows.
  • signal <AbortSignal> allows aborting the child process using an AbortSignal.
  • timeout <number> Default: 0
  • maxBuffer <number> Largest amount of data in bytes allowed on stdout or stderr. If exceeded, the child process is terminated and any output is truncated. See caveat at maxBuffer and Unicode. Default: 1024 * 1024.
  • killSignal <string> | <integer> Default: 'SIGTERM'
  • uid <number> Sets the user identity of the process (see setuid(2)).
  • gid <number> Sets the group identity of the process (see setgid(2)).
  • windowsHide <boolean> Hide the subprocess console window that would normally be created on Windows systems. Default: false.
• callback <Function> called with the output when process terminates.
  • error <Error>
  • stdout <string> | <Buffer>
  • stderr <string> | <Buffer>
• Returns: <ChildProcess>

Spawns a shell then executes the command within that shell, buffering any generated output. The command string passed to the exec function is processed directly by the shell and special characters (vary based on shell) need to be dealt with accordingly:

const { exec } = require('node:child_process');

exec('"/path/to/test file/test.sh" arg1 arg2');
// Double quotes are used so that the space in the path is not interpreted as
// a delimiter of multiple arguments.

exec('echo "The \\$HOME variable is $HOME"');
// The $HOME variable is escaped in the first instance, but not in the second. copy

Never pass unsanitized user input to this function. Any input containing shell metacharacters may be used to trigger arbitrary command execution.

If a callback function is provided, it is called with the arguments (error, stdout, stderr). On success, error will be null. On error, error will be an instance of Error. The error.code property will be the exit code of the process. By convention, any exit code other than 0 indicates an error. error.signal will be the signal that terminated the process.

The stdout and stderr arguments passed to the callback will contain the stdout and stderr output of the child process. By default, Node.js will decode the output as UTF-8 and pass strings to the callback. The encoding option can be used to specify the character encoding used to decode the stdout and stderr output. If encoding is 'buffer', or an unrecognized character encoding, Buffer objects will be passed to the callback instead.

const { exec } = require('node:child_process');
exec('cat *.js missing_file | wc -l', (error, stdout, stderr) => {
  if (error) {
    console.error(`exec error: ${error}`);
    return;
  }
  console.log(`stdout: ${stdout}`);
  console.error(`stderr: ${stderr}`);
}); copy

If timeout is greater than 0, the parent will send the signal identified by the killSignal property (the default is 'SIGTERM') if the child runs longer than timeout milliseconds.

Unlike the exec(3) POSIX system call, child_process.exec() does not replace the existing process and uses a shell to execute the command.

If this method is invoked as its util.promisify()ed version, it returns a Promise for an Object with stdout and stderr properties. The returned ChildProcess instance is attached to the Promise as a child property. In case of an error (including any error resulting in an exit code other than 0), a rejected promise is returned, with the same error object given in the callback, but with two additional properties stdout and stderr.

const util = require('node:util');
const exec = util.promisify(require('node:child_process').exec);

async function lsExample() {
  const { stdout, stderr } = await exec('ls');
  console.log('stdout:', stdout);
  console.error('stderr:', stderr);
}
lsExample(); copy

If the signal option is enabled, calling .abort() on the corresponding AbortController is similar to calling .kill() on the child process except the error passed to the callback will be an AbortError:

const { exec } = require('node:child_process');
const controller = new AbortController();
const { signal } = controller;
const child = exec('grep ssh', { signal }, (error) => {
  console.error(error); // an AbortError
});
controller.abort(); copy

child_process.execFile(file[, args][, options][, callback])#

• file <string> The name or path of the executable file to run.
• args <string[]> List of string arguments.
• options <Object>
  • cwd <string> | <URL> Current working directory of the child process.
  • env <Object> Environment key-value pairs. Default: process.env.
  • encoding <string> Default: 'utf8'
  • timeout <number> Default: 0
  • maxBuffer <number> Largest amount of data in bytes allowed on stdout or stderr. If exceeded, the child process is terminated and any output is truncated. See caveat at maxBuffer and Unicode. Default: 1024 * 1024.
  • killSignal <string> | <integer> Default: 'SIGTERM'
  • uid <number> Sets the user identity of the process (see setuid(2)).
  • gid <number> Sets the group identity of the process (see setgid(2)).
  • windowsHide <boolean> Hide the subprocess console window that would normally be created on Windows systems. Default: false.
  • windowsVerbatimArguments <boolean> No quoting or escaping of arguments is done on Windows. Ignored on Unix. Default: false.
  • shell <boolean> | <string> If true, runs command inside of a shell. Uses '/bin/sh' on Unix, and process.env.ComSpec on Windows. A different shell can be specified as a string. See Shell requirements and Default Windows shell. Default: false (no shell).
  • signal <AbortSignal> allows aborting the child process using an AbortSignal.
• callback <Function> Called with the output when process terminates.
  • error <Error>
  • stdout <string> | <Buffer>
  • stderr <string> | <Buffer>
• Returns: <ChildProcess>

The child_process.execFile() function is similar to child_process.exec() except that it does not spawn a shell by default. Rather, the specified executable file is spawned directly as a new process making it slightly more efficient than child_process.exec().

The same options as child_process.exec() are supported. Since a shell is not spawned, behaviors such as I/O redirection and file globbing are not supported.

const { execFile } = require('node:child_process');
const child = execFile('node', ['--version'], (error, stdout, stderr) => {
  if (error) {
    throw error;
  }
  console.log(stdout);
}); copy

The stdout and stderr arguments passed to the callback will contain the stdout and stderr output of the child process. By default, Node.js will decode the output as UTF-8 and pass strings to the callback. The encoding option can be used to specify the character encoding used to decode the stdout and stderr output. If encoding is 'buffer', or an unrecognized character encoding, Buffer objects will be passed to the callback instead.

If this method is invoked as its util.promisify()ed version, it returns a Promise for an Object with stdout and stderr properties. The returned ChildProcess instance is attached to the Promise as a child property. In case of an error (including any error resulting in an exit code other than 0), a rejected promise is returned, with the same error object given in the callback, but with two additional properties stdout and stderr.

const util = require('node:util');
const execFile = util.promisify(require('node:child_process').execFile);
async function getVersion() {
  const { stdout } = await execFile('node', ['--version']);
  console.log(stdout);
}
getVersion(); copy

If the shell option is enabled, do not pass unsanitized user input to this function. Any input containing shell metacharacters may be used to trigger arbitrary command execution.

If the signal option is enabled, calling .abort() on the corresponding AbortController is similar to calling .kill() on the child process except the error passed to the callback will be an AbortError:

const { execFile } = require('node:child_process');
const controller = new AbortController();
const { signal } = controller;
const child = execFile('node', ['--version'], { signal }, (error) => {
  console.error(error); // an AbortError
});
controller.abort(); copy

child_process.fork(modulePath[, args][, options])#

• modulePath <string> | <URL> The module to run in the child.
• args <string[]> List of string arguments.
• options <Object>
  • cwd <string> | <URL> Current working directory of the child process.
  • detached <boolean> Prepare child to run independently of its parent process. Specific behavior depends on the platform, see options.detached).
  • env <Object> Environment key-value pairs. Default: process.env.
  • execPath <string> Executable used to create the child process.
  • execArgv <string[]> List of string arguments passed to the executable. Default: process.execArgv.
  • gid <number> Sets the group identity of the process (see setgid(2)).
  • serialization <string> Specify the kind of serialization used for sending messages between processes. Possible values are 'json' and 'advanced'. See Advanced serialization for more details. Default: 'json'.
  • signal <AbortSignal> Allows closing the child process using an AbortSignal.
  • killSignal <string> | <integer> The signal value to be used when the spawned process will be killed by timeout or abort signal. Default: 'SIGTERM'.
  • silent <boolean> If true, stdin, stdout, and stderr of the child will be piped to the parent, otherwise they will be inherited from the parent, see the 'pipe' and 'inherit' options for child_process.spawn()'s stdio for more details. Default: false.
  • stdio <Array> | <string> See child_process.spawn()'s stdio. When this option is provided, it overrides silent. If the array variant is used, it must contain exactly one item with value 'ipc' or an error will be thrown. For instance [0, 1, 2, 'ipc'].
  • uid <number> Sets the user identity of the process (see setuid(2)).
  • windowsVerbatimArguments <boolean> No quoting or escaping of arguments is done on Windows. Ignored on Unix. Default: false.
  • timeout <number> In milliseconds the maximum amount of time the process is allowed to run. Default: undefined.
• Returns: <ChildProcess>

The child_process.fork() method is a special case of child_process.spawn() used specifically to spawn new Node.js processes. Like child_process.spawn(), a ChildProcess object is returned. The returned ChildProcess will have an additional communication channel built-in that allows messages to be passed back and forth between the parent and child. See subprocess.send() for details.

Keep in mind that spawned Node.js child processes are independent of the parent with exception of the IPC communication channel that is established between the two. Each process has its own memory, with their own V8 instances. Because of the additional resource allocations required, spawning a large number of child Node.js processes is not recommended.

By default, child_process.fork() will spawn new Node.js instances using the process.execPath of the parent process. The execPath property in the options object allows for an alternative execution path to be used.

Node.js processes launched with a custom execPath will communicate with the parent process using the file descriptor (fd) identified using the environment variable NODE_CHANNEL_FD on the child process.

Unlike the fork(2) POSIX system call, child_process.fork() does not clone the current process.

The shell option available in child_process.spawn() is not supported by child_process.fork() and will be ignored if set.

If the signal option is enabled, calling .abort() on the corresponding AbortController is similar to calling .kill() on the child process except the error passed to the callback will be an AbortError:

if (process.argv[2] === 'child') {
  setTimeout(() => {
    console.log(`Hello from ${process.argv[2]}!`);
  }, 1_000);
} else {
  const { fork } = require('node:child_process');
  const controller = new AbortController();
  const { signal } = controller;
  const child = fork(__filename, ['child'], { signal });
  child.on('error', (err) => {
    // This will be called with err being an AbortError if the controller aborts
  });
  controller.abort(); // Stops the child process
} copy

child_process.spawn(command[, args][, options])#

• command <string> The command to run.
• args <string[]> List of string arguments.
• options <Object>
  • cwd <string> | <URL> Current working directory of the child process.
  • env <Object> Environment key-value pairs. Default: process.env.
  • argv0 <string> Explicitly set the value of argv[0] sent to the child process. This will be set to command if not specified.
  • stdio <Array> | <string> Child's stdio configuration (see options.stdio).
  • detached <boolean> Prepare child to run independently of its parent process. Specific behavior depends on the platform, see options.detached).
  • uid <number> Sets the user identity of the process (see setuid(2)).
  • gid <number> Sets the group identity of the process (see setgid(2)).
  • serialization