Child process#
Source Code: lib/child_process.js
The node:child_process
module provides the ability to spawn subprocesses in
a manner that is similar, but not identical, to popen(3)
. This capability
is primarily provided by the child_process.spawn()
function:
const { spawn } = require('node:child_process');
const ls = spawn('ls', ['-lh', '/usr']);
ls.stdout.on('data', (data) => {
console.log(`stdout: ${data}`);
});
ls.stderr.on('data', (data) => {
console.error(`stderr: ${data}`);
});
ls.on('close', (code) => {
console.log(`child process exited with code ${code}`);
});
By default, pipes for stdin
, stdout
, and stderr
are established between
the parent Node.js process and the spawned subprocess. These pipes have
limited (and platform-specific) capacity. If the subprocess writes to
stdout in excess of that limit without the output being captured, the
subprocess blocks waiting for the pipe buffer to accept more data. This is
identical to the behavior of pipes in the shell. Use the { stdio: 'ignore' }
option if the output will not be consumed.
The command lookup is performed using the options.env.PATH
environment
variable if env
is in the options
object. Otherwise, process.env.PATH
is
used. If options.env
is set without PATH
, lookup on Unix is performed
on a default search path search of /usr/bin:/bin
(see your operating system's
manual for execvpe/execvp), on Windows the current processes environment
variable PATH
is used.
On Windows, environment variables are case-insensitive. Node.js
lexicographically sorts the env
keys and uses the first one that
case-insensitively matches. Only first (in lexicographic order) entry will be
passed to the subprocess. This might lead to issues on Windows when passing
objects to the env
option that have multiple variants of the same key, such as
PATH
and Path
.
The child_process.spawn()
method spawns the child process asynchronously,
without blocking the Node.js event loop. The child_process.spawnSync()
function provides equivalent functionality in a synchronous manner that blocks
the event loop until the spawned process either exits or is terminated.
For convenience, the node:child_process
module provides a handful of
synchronous and asynchronous alternatives to child_process.spawn()
and
child_process.spawnSync()
. Each of these alternatives are implemented on
top of child_process.spawn()
or child_process.spawnSync()
.
For certain use cases, such as automating shell scripts, the
synchronous counterparts may be more convenient. In many cases, however,
the synchronous methods can have significant impact on performance due to
stalling the event loop while spawned processes complete.
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.
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 ${code}`);
});
const { exec, spawn } = require('node:child_process');
exec('my.bat', (err, stdout, stderr) => {
if (err) {
console.error(err);
return;
}
console.log(stdout);
});
const bat = spawn('"my script.cmd"', ['a', 'b'], { shell: true });
exec('"my script.cmd" a b', (err, stdout, stderr) => {
});
child_process.exec(command[, options][, callback])
#
command
<string> The command to run, with space-separated arguments.
options
<Object>
cwd
<string> | <URL> Current working directory of the child process.
Default: process.cwd()
.
env
<Object> Environment key-value pairs. Default: process.env
.
encoding
<string> Default: 'utf8'
shell
<string> Shell to execute the command with. See
Shell requirements and Default Windows shell. Default:
'/bin/sh'
on Unix, process.env.ComSpec
on Windows.
signal
<AbortSignal> allows aborting the child process using an
AbortSignal.
timeout
<number> Default: 0
maxBuffer
<number> Largest amount of data in bytes allowed on stdout or
stderr. If exceeded, the child process is terminated and any output is
truncated. See caveat at maxBuffer
and Unicode.
Default: 1024 * 1024
.
killSignal
<string> | <integer> Default: 'SIGTERM'
uid
<number> Sets the user identity of the process (see setuid(2)
).
gid
<number> Sets the group identity of the process (see setgid(2)
).
windowsHide
<boolean> Hide the subprocess console window that would
normally be created on Windows systems. Default: false
.
callback
<Function> called with the output when process terminates.
- Returns: <ChildProcess>
Spawns a shell then executes the command
within that shell, buffering any
generated output. The command
string passed to the exec function is processed
directly by the shell and special characters (vary based on
shell)
need to be dealt with accordingly:
const { exec } = require('node:child_process');
exec('"/path/to/test file/test.sh" arg1 arg2');
exec('echo "The \\$HOME variable is $HOME"');
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}`);
});
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();
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.log(error);
});
controller.abort();
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.
- 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);
});
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();
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.log(error);
});
controller.abort();
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) => {
});
controller.abort();
}
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
<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'
.
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).
windowsVerbatimArguments
<boolean> No quoting or escaping of arguments is
done on Windows. Ignored on Unix. This is set to true
automatically
when shell
is specified and is CMD. Default: false
.
windowsHide
<boolean> Hide the subprocess console window that would
normally be created on Windows systems. Default: false
.
signal
<AbortSignal> allows aborting the child process using an
AbortSignal.
timeout
<number> In milliseconds the maximum amount of time the process
is allowed to run. Default: undefined
.
killSignal
<string> | <integer> The signal value to be used when the spawned
process will be killed by timeout or abort signal. Default: 'SIGTERM'
.
- Returns: <ChildProcess>
The child_process.spawn()
method spawns a new process using the given
command
, with command-line arguments in args
. If omitted, args
defaults
to an empty array.
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.
A third argument may be used to specify additional options, with these defaults:
const defaults = {
cwd: undefined,
env: process.env
};
Use cwd
to specify the working directory from which the process is spawned.
If not given, the default is to inherit the current working directory. If given,
but the path does not exist, the child process emits an ENOENT
error
and exits immediately. ENOENT
is also emitted when the command
does not exist.
Use env
to specify environment variables that will be visible to the new
process, the default is process.env
.
undefined
values in env
will be ignored.
Example of running ls -lh /usr
, capturing stdout
, stderr
, and the
exit code:
const { spawn } = require('node:child_process');
const ls = spawn('ls', ['-lh', '/usr']);
ls.stdout.on('data', (data) => {
console.log(`stdout: ${data}`);
});
ls.stderr.on('data', (data) => {
console.error(`stderr: ${data}`);
});
ls.on('close', (code) => {
console.log(`child process exited with code ${code}`);
});
Example: A very elaborate way to run ps ax | grep ssh
const { spawn } = require('node:child_process');
const ps = spawn('ps', ['ax']);
const grep = spawn('grep', ['ssh']);
ps.stdout.on('data', (data) => {
grep.stdin.write(data);
});
ps.stderr.on('data', (data) => {
console.error(`ps stderr: ${data}`);
});
ps.on('close', (code) => {
if (code !== 0) {
console.log(`ps process exited with code ${code}`);
}
grep.stdin.end();
});
grep.stdout.on('data', (data) => {
console.log(data.toString());
});
grep.stderr.on('data', (data) => {
console.error(`grep stderr: ${data}`);
});
grep.on('close', (code) => {
if (code !== 0) {
console.log(`grep process exited with code ${code}`);
}
});
Example of checking for failed spawn
:
const { spawn } = require('node:child_process');
const subprocess = spawn('bad_command');
subprocess.on('error', (err) => {
console.error('Failed to start subprocess.');
});
Certain platforms (macOS, Linux) will use the value of argv[0]
for the process
title while others (Windows, SunOS) will use command
.
Node.js overwrites argv[0]
with process.execPath
on startup, so
process.argv[0]
in a Node.js child process will not match the argv0
parameter passed to spawn
from the parent. Retrieve it with the
process.argv0
property instead.
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 { spawn } = require('node:child_process');
const controller = new AbortController();
const { signal } = controller;
const grep = spawn('grep', ['ssh'], { signal });
grep.on('error', (err) => {
});
controller.abort();
options.detached
#
Added in: v0.7.10
On Windows, setting options.detached
to true
makes it possible for the
child process to continue running after the parent exits. The child will have
its own console window. Once enabled for a child process, it cannot be
disabled.
On non-Windows platforms, if options.detached
is set to true
, the child
process will be made the leader of a new process group and session. Child
processes may continue running after the parent exits regardless of whether
they are detached or not. See setsid(2)
for more information.
By default, the parent will wait for the detached child to exit. To prevent the
parent from waiting for a given subprocess
to exit, use the
subprocess.unref()
method. Doing so will cause the parent's event loop to not
include the child in its reference count, allowing the parent to exit
independently of the child, unless there is an established IPC channel between
the child and the parent.
When using the detached
option to start a long-running process, the process
will not stay running in the background after the parent exits unless it is
provided with a stdio
configuration that is not connected to the parent.
If the parent's stdio
is inherited, the child will remain attached to the
controlling terminal.
Example of a long-running process, by detaching and also ignoring its parent
stdio
file descriptors, in order to ignore the parent's termination:
const { spawn } = require('node:child_process');
const subprocess = spawn(process.argv[0], ['child_program.js'], {
detached: true,
stdio: 'ignore'
});
subprocess.unref();
Alternatively one can redirect the child process' output into files:
const fs = require('node:fs');
const { spawn } = require('node:child_process');
const out = fs.openSync('./out.log', 'a');
const err = fs.openSync('./out.log', 'a');
const subprocess = spawn('prg', [], {
detached: true,
stdio: [ 'ignore', out, err ]
});
subprocess.unref();
options.stdio
#
The options.stdio
option is used to configure the pipes that are established
between the parent and child process. By default, the child's stdin, stdout,
and stderr are redirected to corresponding subprocess.stdin
,
subprocess.stdout
, and subprocess.stderr
streams on the
ChildProcess
object. This is equivalent to setting the options.stdio
equal to ['pipe', 'pipe', 'pipe']
.
For convenience, options.stdio
may be one of the following strings:
'pipe'
: equivalent to ['pipe', 'pipe', 'pipe']
(the default)
'overlapped'
: equivalent to ['overlapped', 'overlapped', 'overlapped']
'ignore'
: equivalent to ['ignore', 'ignore', 'ignore']
'inherit'
: equivalent to ['inherit', 'inherit', 'inherit']
or [0, 1, 2]
Otherwise, the value of options.stdio
is an array where each index corresponds
to an fd in the child. The fds 0, 1, and 2 correspond to stdin, stdout,
and stderr, respectively. Additional fds can be specified to create additional
pipes between the parent and child. The value is one of the following:
-
'pipe'
: Create a pipe between the child process and the parent process.
The parent end of the pipe is exposed to the parent as a property on the
child_process
object as subprocess.stdio[fd]
. Pipes
created for fds 0, 1, and 2 are also available as subprocess.stdin
,
subprocess.stdout
and subprocess.stderr
, respectively.
These are not actual Unix pipes and therefore the child process
can not use them by their descriptor files,
e.g. /dev/fd/2
or /dev/stdout
.
-
'overlapped'
: Same as 'pipe'
except that the FILE_FLAG_OVERLAPPED
flag
is set on the handle. This is necessary for overlapped I/O on the child
process's stdio handles. See the
docs
for more details. This is exactly the same as 'pipe'
on non-Windows
systems.
-
'ipc'
: Create an IPC channel for passing messages/file descriptors
between parent and child. A ChildProcess
may have at most one IPC
stdio file descriptor. Setting this option enables the
subprocess.send()
method. If the child is a Node.js process, the
presence of an IPC channel will enable process.send()
and
process.disconnect()
methods, as well as 'disconnect'
and
'message'
events within the child.
Accessing the IPC channel fd in any way other than process.send()
or using the IPC channel with a child process that is not a Node.js instance
is not supported.
-
'ignore'
: Instructs Node.js to ignore the fd in the child. While Node.js
will always open fds 0, 1, and 2 for the processes it spawns, setting the fd
to 'ignore'
will cause Node.js to open /dev/null
and attach it to the
child's fd.
-
'inherit'
: Pass through the corresponding stdio stream to/from the
parent process. In the first three positions, this is equivalent to
process.stdin
, process.stdout
, and process.stderr
, respectively. In
any other position, equivalent to 'ignore'
.
-
<Stream> object: Share a readable or writable stream that refers to a tty,
file, socket, or a pipe with the child process. The stream's underlying
file descriptor is duplicated in the child process to the fd that
corresponds to the index in the stdio
array. The stream must have an
underlying descriptor (file streams do not until the 'open'
event has
occurred).
-
Positive integer: The integer value is interpreted as a file descriptor
that is open in the parent process. It is shared with the child
process, similar to how <Stream> objects can be shared. Passing sockets
is not supported on Windows.
-
null
, undefined
: Use default value. For stdio fds 0, 1, and 2 (in other
words, stdin, stdout, and stderr) a pipe is created. For fd 3 and up, the
default is 'ignore'
.
const { spawn } = require('node:child_process');
spawn('prg', [], { stdio: 'inherit' });
spawn('prg', [], { stdio: ['pipe', 'pipe', process.stderr] });
spawn('prg', [], { stdio: ['pipe', null, null, null, 'pipe'] });
It is worth noting that when an IPC channel is established between the
parent and child processes, and the child is a Node.js process, the child
is launched with the IPC channel unreferenced (using unref()
) until the
child registers an event handler for the 'disconnect'
event
or the 'message'
event. This allows the child to exit
normally without the process being held open by the open IPC channel.
On Unix-like operating systems, the child_process.spawn()
method
performs memory operations synchronously before decoupling the event loop
from the child. Applications with a large memory footprint may find frequent
child_process.spawn()
calls to be a bottleneck. For more information,
see V8 issue 7381.
See also: child_process.exec()
and child_process.fork()
.
Synchronous process creation#
The child_process.spawnSync()
, child_process.execSync()
, and
child_process.execFileSync()
methods are synchronous and will block the
Node.js event loop, pausing execution of any additional code until the spawned
process exits.
Blocking calls like these are mostly useful for simplifying general-purpose
scripting tasks and for simplifying the loading/processing of application
configuration at startup.
child_process.execFileSync(file[, args][, options])
#
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.
input
<string> | <Buffer> | <TypedArray> | <DataView> The value which will be passed
as stdin to the spawned process. Supplying this value will override
stdio[0]
.
stdio
<string> | <Array> Child's stdio configuration. stderr
by default will
be output to the parent process' stderr unless stdio
is specified.
Default: 'pipe'
.
env
<Object> Environment key-value pairs. Default: process.env
.
uid
<number> Sets the user identity of the process (see setuid(2)
).
gid
<number> Sets the group identity of the process (see setgid(2)
).
timeout
<number> In milliseconds the maximum amount of time the process
is allowed to run. Default: undefined
.
killSignal
<string> | <integer> The signal value to be used when the spawned
process will be killed. Default: 'SIGTERM'
.
maxBuffer
<number> Largest amount of data in bytes allowed on stdout or
stderr. If exceeded, the child process is terminated. See caveat at
maxBuffer
and Unicode. Default: 1024 * 1024
.
encoding
<string> The encoding used for all stdio inputs and outputs.
Default: 'buffer'
.
windowsHide
<boolean> Hide the subprocess console window that would
normally be created on Windows systems. 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).
- Returns: <Buffer> | <string> The stdout from the command.
The child_process.execFileSync()
method is generally identical to
child_process.execFile()
with the exception that the method will not
return until the child process has fully closed. When a timeout has been
encountered and killSignal
is sent, the method won't return until the process
has completely exited.
If the child process intercepts and handles the SIGTERM
signal and
does not exit, the parent process will still wait until the child process has
exited.
If the process times out or has a non-zero exit code, this method will throw an
Error
that will include the full result of the underlying
child_process.spawnSync()
.
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.
child_process.execSync(command[, options])
#
command
<string> The command to run.
options
<Object>
cwd
<string> | <URL> Current working directory of the child process.
input
<string> | <Buffer> | <TypedArray> | <DataView> The value which will be passed
as stdin to the spawned process. Supplying this value will override
stdio[0]
.
stdio
<string> | <Array> Child's stdio configuration. stderr
by default will
be output to the parent process' stderr unless stdio
is specified.
Default: 'pipe'
.
env
<Object> Environment key-value pairs. Default: process.env
.
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.
uid
<number> Sets the user identity of the process. (See setuid(2)
).
gid
<number> Sets the group identity of the process. (See setgid(2)
).
timeout
<number> In milliseconds the maximum amount of time the process
is allowed to run. Default: undefined
.
killSignal
<string> | <integer> The signal value to be used when the spawned
process will be killed. Default: 'SIGTERM'
.
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
.
encoding
<string> The encoding used for all stdio inputs and outputs.
Default: 'buffer'
.
windowsHide
<boolean> Hide the subprocess console window that would
normally be created on Windows systems. Default: false
.
- Returns: <Buffer> | <string> The stdout from the command.
The child_process.execSync()
method is generally identical to
child_process.exec()
with the exception that the method will not return
until the child process has fully closed. When a timeout has been encountered
and killSignal
is sent, the method won't return until the process has
completely exited. If the child process intercepts and handles the SIGTERM
signal and doesn't exit, the parent process will wait until the child process
has exited.
If the process times out or has a non-zero exit code, this method will throw.
The Error
object will contain the entire result from
child_process.spawnSync()
.
Never pass unsanitized user input to this function. Any input containing shell
metacharacters may be used to trigger arbitrary command execution.
child_process.spawnSync(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.
input
<string> | <Buffer> | <TypedArray> | <DataView> The value which will be passed
as stdin to the spawned process. Supplying this value will override
stdio[0]
.
argv0
<string> Explicitly set the value of argv[0]
sent to the child
process. This will be set to command
if not specified.
stdio
<string> | <Array> Child's stdio configuration.
env
<Object> Environment key-value pairs. Default: process.env
.
uid
<number> Sets the user identity of the process (see setuid(2)
).
gid
<number> Sets the group identity of the process (see setgid(2)
).
timeout
<number> In milliseconds the maximum amount of time the process
is allowed to run. Default: undefined
.
killSignal
<string> | <integer> The signal value to be used when the spawned
process will be killed. Default: 'SIGTERM'
.
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
.
encoding
<string> The encoding used for all stdio inputs and outputs.
Default: 'buffer'
.
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).
windowsVerbatimArguments
<boolean> No quoting or escaping of arguments is
done on Windows. Ignored on Unix. This is set to true
automatically
when shell
is specified and is CMD. Default: false
.
windowsHide
<boolean> Hide the subprocess console window that would
normally be created on Windows systems. Default: false
.
- Returns: <Object>
pid
<number> Pid of the child process.
output
<Array> Array of results from stdio output.
stdout
<Buffer> | <string> The contents of output[1]
.
stderr
<Buffer> | <string> The contents of output[2]
.
status
<number> | <null> The exit code of the subprocess, or null
if the
subprocess terminated due to a signal.
signal
<string> | <null> The signal used to kill the subprocess, or null
if
the subprocess did not terminate due to a signal.
error
<Error> The error object if the child process failed or timed out.
The child_process.spawnSync()
method is generally identical to
child_process.spawn()
with the exception that the function will not return
until the child process has fully closed. When a timeout has been encountered
and killSignal
is sent, the method won't return until the process has
completely exited. If the process intercepts and handles the SIGTERM
signal
and doesn't exit, the parent process will wait until the child process has
exited.
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.
Class: ChildProcess
#
Added in: v2.2.0
Instances of the ChildProcess
represent spawned child processes.
Instances of ChildProcess
are not intended to be created directly. Rather,
use the child_process.spawn()
, child_process.exec()
,
child_process.execFile()
, or child_process.fork()
methods to create
instances of ChildProcess
.
Event: 'close'
#
Added in: v0.7.7
code
<number> The exit code if the child exited on its own.
signal
<string> The signal by which the child process was terminated.
The 'close'
event is emitted after a process has ended and the stdio
streams of a child process have been closed. This is distinct from the
'exit'
event, since multiple processes might share the same stdio
streams. The 'close'
event will always emit after 'exit'
was
already emitted, or 'error'
if the child failed to spawn.
const { spawn } = require('node:child_process');
const ls = spawn('ls', ['-lh', '/usr']);
ls.stdout.on('data', (data) => {
console.log(`stdout: ${data}`);
});
ls.on('close', (code) => {
console.log(`child process close all stdio with code ${code}`);
});
ls.on('exit', (code) => {
console.log(`child process exited with code ${code}`);
});
Event: 'disconnect'
#
Added in: v0.7.2
The 'disconnect'
event is emitted after calling the
subprocess.disconnect()
method in parent process or
process.disconnect()
in child process. After disconnecting it is no longer
possible to send or receive messages, and the subprocess.connected
property is false
.
Event: 'error'
#
The 'error'
event is emitted whenever:
- The process could not be spawned, or
- The process could not be killed, or
- Sending a message to the child process failed.
The 'exit'
event may or may not fire after an error has occurred. When
listening to both the 'exit'
and 'error'
events, guard
against accidentally invoking handler functions multiple times.
See also subprocess.kill()
and subprocess.send()
.
Event: 'exit'
#
Added in: v0.1.90
code
<number> The exit code if the child exited on its own.
signal
<string> The signal by which the child process was terminated.
The 'exit'
event is emitted after the child process ends. If the process
exited, code
is the final exit code of the process, otherwise null
. If the
process terminated due to receipt of a signal, signal
is the string name of
the signal, otherwise null
. One of the two will always be non-null
.
When the 'exit'
event is triggered, child process stdio streams might still be
open.
Node.js establishes signal handlers for SIGINT
and SIGTERM
and Node.js
processes will not terminate immediately due to receipt of those signals.
Rather, Node.js will perform a sequence of cleanup actions and then will
re-raise the handled signal.
See waitpid(2)
.
Event: 'message'
#
Added in: v0.5.9
The 'message'
event is triggered when a child process uses
process.send()
to send messages.
The message goes through serialization and parsing. The resulting
message might not be the same as what is originally sent.
If the serialization
option was set to 'advanced'
used when spawning the
child process, the message
argument can contain data that JSON is not able
to represent.
See Advanced serialization for more details.
Event: 'spawn'
#
Added in: v15.1.0
The 'spawn'
event is emitted once the child process has spawned successfully.
If the child process does not spawn successfully, the 'spawn'
event is not
emitted and the 'error'
event is emitted instead.
If emitted, the 'spawn'
event comes before all other events and before any
data is received via stdout
or stderr
.
The 'spawn'
event will fire regardless of whether an error occurs within
the spawned process. For example, if bash some-command
spawns successfully,
the 'spawn'
event will fire, though bash
may fail to spawn some-command
.
This caveat also applies when using { shell: true }
.
subprocess.channel
#
- <Object> A pipe representing the IPC channel to the child process.
The subprocess.channel
property is a reference to the child's IPC channel. If
no IPC channel exists, this property is undefined
.
subprocess.channel.ref()
#
Added in: v7.1.0
This method makes the IPC channel keep the event loop of the parent process
running if .unref()
has been called before.
subprocess.channel.unref()
#
Added in: v7.1.0
This method makes the IPC channel not keep the event loop of the parent process
running, and lets it finish even while the channel is open.
subprocess.connected
#
Added in: v0.7.2
- <boolean> Set to
false
after subprocess.disconnect()
is called.
The subprocess.connected
property indicates whether it is still possible to
send and receive messages from a child process. When subprocess.connected
is
false
, it is no longer possible to send or receive messages.
subprocess.disconnect()
#
Added in: v0.7.2
Closes the IPC channel between parent and child, allowing the child to exit
gracefully once there are no other connections keeping it alive. After calling
this method the subprocess.connected
and process.connected
properties in
both the parent and child (respectively) will be set to false
, and it will be
no longer possible to pass messages between the processes.
The 'disconnect'
event will be emitted when there are no messages in the
process of being received. This will most often be triggered immediately after
calling subprocess.disconnect()
.
When the child process is a Node.js instance (e.g. spawned using
child_process.fork()
), the process.disconnect()
method can be invoked
within the child process to close the IPC channel as well.
subprocess.exitCode
#
The subprocess.exitCode
property indicates the exit code of the child process.
If the child process is still running, the field will be null
.
subprocess.kill([signal])
#
Added in: v0.1.90
The subprocess.kill()
method sends a signal to the child process. If no
argument is given, the process will be sent the 'SIGTERM'
signal. See
signal(7)
for a list of available signals. This function returns true
if
kill(2)
succeeds, and false
otherwise.
const { spawn } = require('node:child_process');
const grep = spawn('grep', ['ssh']);
grep.on('close', (code, signal) => {
console.log(
`child process terminated due to receipt of signal ${signal}`);
});
grep.kill('SIGHUP');
The ChildProcess
object may emit an 'error'
event if the signal
cannot be delivered. Sending a signal to a child process that has already exited
is not an error but may have unforeseen consequences. Specifically, if the
process identifier (PID) has been reassigned to another process, the signal will
be delivered to that process instead which can have unexpected results.
While the function is called kill
, the signal delivered to the child process
may not actually terminate the process.
See kill(2)
for reference.
On Windows, where POSIX signals do not exist, the signal
argument will be
ignored, and the process will be killed forcefully and abruptly (similar to
'SIGKILL'
).
See Signal Events for more details.
On Linux, child processes of child processes will not be terminated
when attempting to kill their parent. This is likely to happen when running a
new process in a shell or with the use of the shell
option of ChildProcess
:
'use strict';
const { spawn } = require('node:child_process');
const subprocess = spawn(
'sh',
[
'-c',
`node -e "setInterval(() => {
console.log(process.pid, 'is alive')
}, 500);"`,
], {
stdio: ['inherit', 'inherit', 'inherit']
}
);
setTimeout(() => {
subprocess.kill();
}, 2000);
subprocess.killed
#
Added in: v0.5.10
- <boolean> Set to
true
after subprocess.kill()
is used to successfully
send a signal to the child process.
The subprocess.killed
property indicates whether the child process
successfully received a signal from subprocess.kill()
. The killed
property
does not indicate that the child process has been terminated.
subprocess.pid
#
Added in: v0.1.90
Returns the process identifier (PID) of the child process. If the child process
fails to spawn due to errors, then the value is undefined
and error
is
emitted.
const { spawn } = require('node:child_process');
const grep = spawn('grep', ['ssh']);
console.log(`Spawned child pid: ${grep.pid}`);
grep.stdin.end();
subprocess.ref()
#
Added in: v0.7.10
Calling subprocess.ref()
after making a call to subprocess.unref()
will
restore the removed reference count for the child process, forcing the parent
to wait for the child to exit before exiting itself.
const { spawn } = require('node:child_process');
const subprocess = spawn(process.argv[0], ['child_program.js'], {
detached: true,
stdio: 'ignore'
});
subprocess.unref();
subprocess.ref();
subprocess.send(message[, sendHandle[, options]][, callback])
#
message
<Object>
sendHandle
<Handle>
options
<Object> The options
argument, if present, is an object used to
parameterize the sending of certain types of handles. options
supports
the following properties:
keepOpen
<boolean> A value that can be used when passing instances of
net.Socket
. When true
, the socket is kept open in the sending process.
Default: false
.
callback
<Function>
- Returns: <boolean>
When an IPC channel has been established between the parent and child (
i.e. when using child_process.fork()
), the subprocess.send()
method can
be used to send messages to the child process. When the child process is a
Node.js instance, these messages can be received via the 'message'
event.
The message goes through serialization and parsing. The resulting
message might not be the same as what is originally sent.
For example, in the parent script:
const cp = require('node:child_process');
const n = cp.fork(`${__dirname}/sub.js`);
n.on('message', (m) => {
console.log('PARENT got message:', m);
});
n.send({ hello: 'world' });
And then the child script, 'sub.js'
might look like this:
process.on('message', (m) => {
console.log('CHILD got message:', m);
});
process.send({ foo: 'bar', baz: NaN });
Child Node.js processes will have a process.send()
method of their own
that allows the child to send messages back to the parent.
There is a special case when sending a {cmd: 'NODE_foo'}
message. Messages
containing a NODE_
prefix in the cmd
property are reserved for use within
Node.js core and will not be emitted in the child's 'message'
event. Rather, such messages are emitted using the
'internalMessage'
event and are consumed internally by Node.js.
Applications should avoid using such messages or listening for
'internalMessage'
events as it is subject to change without notice.
The optional sendHandle
argument that may be passed to subprocess.send()
is
for passing a TCP server or socket object to the child process. The child will
receive the object as the second argument passed to the callback function
registered on the 'message'
event. Any data that is received
and buffered in the socket will not be sent to the child.
The optional callback
is a function that is invoked after the message is
sent but before the child may have received it. The function is called with a
single argument: null
on success, or an Error
object on failure.
If no callback
function is provided and the message cannot be sent, an
'error'
event will be emitted by the ChildProcess
object. This can
happen, for instance, when the child process has already exited.
subprocess.send()
will return false
if the channel has closed or when the
backlog of unsent messages exceeds a threshold that makes it unwise to send
more. Otherwise, the method returns true
. The callback
function can be
used to implement flow control.
Example: sending a server object#
The sendHandle
argument can be used, for instance, to pass the handle of
a TCP server object to the child process as illustrated in the example below:
const subprocess = require('node:child_process').fork('subprocess.js');
const server = require('node:net').createServer();
server.on('connection', (socket) => {
socket.end('handled by parent');
});
server.listen(1337, () => {
subprocess.send('server', server);
});
The child would then receive the server object as:
process.on('message', (m, server) => {
if (m === 'server') {
server.on('connection', (socket) => {
socket.end('handled by child');
});
}
});
Once the server is now shared between the parent and child, some connections
can be handled by the parent and some by the child.
While the example above uses a server created using the node:net
module,
node:dgram
module servers use exactly the same workflow with the exceptions of
listening on a 'message'
event instead of 'connection'
and using
server.bind()
instead of server.listen()
. This is, however, only
supported on Unix platforms.
Example: sending a socket object#
Similarly, the sendHandler
argument can be used to pass the handle of a
socket to the child process. The example below spawns two children that each
handle connections with "normal" or "special" priority:
const { fork } = require('node:child_process');
const normal = fork('subprocess.js', ['normal']);
const special = fork('subprocess.js', ['special']);
const server = require('node:net').createServer({ pauseOnConnect: true });
server.on('connection', (socket) => {
if (socket.remoteAddress === '74.125.127.100') {
special.send('socket', socket);
return;
}
normal.send('socket', socket);
});
server.listen(1337);
The subprocess.js
would receive the socket handle as the second argument
passed to the event callback function:
process.on('message', (m, socket) => {
if (m === 'socket') {
if (socket) {
socket.end(`Request handled with ${process.argv[2]} priority`);
}
}
});
Do not use .maxConnections
on a socket that has been passed to a subprocess.
The parent cannot track when the socket is destroyed.
Any 'message'
handlers in the subprocess should verify that socket
exists,
as the connection may have been closed during the time it takes to send the
connection to the child.
subprocess.signalCode
#
The subprocess.signalCode
property indicates the signal received by
the child process if any, else null
.
subprocess.spawnargs
#
The subprocess.spawnargs
property represents the full list of command-line
arguments the child process was launched with.
subprocess.spawnfile
#
The subprocess.spawnfile
property indicates the executable file name of
the child process that is launched.
For child_process.fork()
, its value will be equal to
process.execPath
.
For child_process.spawn()
, its value will be the name of
the executable file.
For child_process.exec()
, its value will be the name of the shell
in which the child process is launched.
subprocess.stderr
#
Added in: v0.1.90
A Readable Stream
that represents the child process's stderr
.
If the child was spawned with stdio[2]
set to anything other than 'pipe'
,
then this will be null
.
subprocess.stderr
is an alias for subprocess.stdio[2]
. Both properties will
refer to the same value.
The subprocess.stderr
property can be null
or undefined
if the child process could not be successfully spawned.
subprocess.stdin
#
Added in: v0.1.90
A Writable Stream
that represents the child process's stdin
.
If a child process waits to read all of its input, the child will not continue
until this stream has been closed via end()
.
If the child was spawned with stdio[0]
set to anything other than 'pipe'
,
then this will be null
.
subprocess.stdin
is an alias for subprocess.stdio[0]
. Both properties will
refer to the same value.
The subprocess.stdin
property can be null
or undefined
if the child process could not be successfully spawned.
subprocess.stdio
#
Added in: v0.7.10
A sparse array of pipes to the child process, corresponding with positions in
the stdio
option passed to child_process.spawn()
that have been set
to the value 'pipe'
. subprocess.stdio[0]
, subprocess.stdio[1]
, and
subprocess.stdio[2]
are also available as subprocess.stdin
,
subprocess.stdout
, and subprocess.stderr
, respectively.
In the following example, only the child's fd 1
(stdout) is configured as a
pipe, so only the parent's subprocess.stdio[1]
is a stream, all other values
in the array are null
.
const assert = require('node:assert');
const fs = require('node:fs');
const child_process = require('node:child_process');
const subprocess = child_process.spawn('ls', {
stdio: [
0,
'pipe',
fs.openSync('err.out', 'w'),
]
});
assert.strictEqual(subprocess.stdio[0], null);
assert.strictEqual(subprocess.stdio[0], subprocess.stdin);
assert(subprocess.stdout);
assert.strictEqual(subprocess.stdio[1], subprocess.stdout);
assert.strictEqual(subprocess.stdio[2], null);
assert.strictEqual(subprocess.stdio[2], subprocess.stderr);
The subprocess.stdio
property can be undefined
if the child process could
not be successfully spawned.
subprocess.stdout
#
Added in: v0.1.90
A Readable Stream
that represents the child process's stdout
.
If the child was spawned with stdio[1]
set to anything other than 'pipe'
,
then this will be null
.
subprocess.stdout
is an alias for subprocess.stdio[1]
. Both properties will
refer to the same value.
const { spawn } = require('node:child_process');
const subprocess = spawn('ls');
subprocess.stdout.on('data', (data) => {
console.log(`Received chunk ${data}`);
});
The subprocess.stdout
property can be null
or undefined
if the child process could not be successfully spawned.
subprocess.unref()
#
Added in: v0.7.10
By default, the parent will wait for the detached child to exit. To prevent the
parent from waiting for a given subprocess
to exit, use the
subprocess.unref()
method. Doing so will cause the parent's event loop to not
include the child in its reference count, allowing the parent to exit
independently of the child, unless there is an established IPC channel between
the child and the parent.
const { spawn } = require('node:child_process');
const subprocess = spawn(process.argv[0], ['child_program.js'], {
detached: true,
stdio: 'ignore'
});
subprocess.unref();
maxBuffer
and Unicode#
The maxBuffer
option specifies the largest number of bytes allowed on stdout
or stderr
. If this value is exceeded, then the child process is terminated.
This impacts output that includes multibyte character encodings such as UTF-8 or
UTF-16. For instance, console.log('中文测试')
will send 13 UTF-8 encoded bytes
to stdout
although there are only 4 characters.
Shell requirements#
The shell should understand the -c
switch. If the shell is 'cmd.exe'
, it
should understand the /d /s /c
switches and command-line parsing should be
compatible.
Default Windows shell#
Although Microsoft specifies %COMSPEC%
must contain the path to
'cmd.exe'
in the root environment, child processes are not always subject to
the same requirement. Thus, in child_process
functions where a shell can be
spawned, 'cmd.exe'
is used as a fallback if process.env.ComSpec
is
unavailable.
Advanced serialization#
Added in: v13.2.0, v12.16.0
Child processes support a serialization mechanism for IPC that is based on the
serialization API of the node:v8
module, based on the
HTML structured clone algorithm. This is generally more powerful and
supports more built-in JavaScript object types, such as BigInt
, Map
and Set
, ArrayBuffer
and TypedArray
, Buffer
, Error
, RegExp
etc.
However, this format is not a full superset of JSON, and e.g. properties set on
objects of such built-in types will not be passed on through the serialization
step. Additionally, performance may not be equivalent to that of JSON, depending
on the structure of the passed data.
Therefore, this feature requires opting in by setting the
serialization
option to 'advanced'
when calling child_process.spawn()
or child_process.fork()
.