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shx

0.3.2 • Public • Published 2 months ago

Shx

shx is a wrapper around ShellJS Unix commands, providing an easy solution for simple Unix-like, cross-platform commands in npm package scripts.

Difference Between ShellJS and shx

ShellJS: Good for writing long scripts, all in JS, running via NodeJS (e.g. node myScript.js).
shx: Good for writing one-off commands in npm package scripts (e.g. "clean": "shx rm -rf out/").

Install

npm install shx --save-dev

This will allow using shx in your package.json scripts.

Usage

Command Line

If you'd like to use shx on the command line, install it globally with the -g flag. The following code can be run either a Unix or Windows command line:

$ shx pwd                       # ShellJS commands are supported automatically
/home/username/path/to/dir
 
$ shx ls                        # files are outputted one per line
file.txt
file2.txt
 
$ shx rm *.txt                  # a cross-platform way to delete files!
 
$ shx ls
 
$ shx echo "Hi there!"
Hi there!
 
$ shx touch helloworld.txt
 
$ shx cp helloworld.txt foobar.txt
 
$ shx mkdir sub
 
$ shx ls
foobar.txt
helloworld.txt
sub
 
$ shx rm -r sub                 # options work as well
 
$ shx --silent ls fakeFileName  # silence error output

All commands internally call the ShellJS corresponding function, guaranteeing cross-platform compatibility.

package.json

ShellJS is good for writing long scripts. If you want to write bash-like, platform-independent scripts, we recommend you go with that.

However, shx is ideal for one-liners inside package.json:

{
  "scripts": {
    "clean": "shx rm -rf build dist && shx echo Done"
  }
}

Unsupported Commands

Due to the differences in execution environments between ShellJS and shx (JS vs CLI) some commands are not supported:

Unsupported command	Recommend workaround
`shx cd`	Just use plain old `cd` (it's the same on windows too)
`shx pushd`	Just use plain old `pushd`. Use forward slashes and double-quote the path. (e.g. `pushd "../docs"`. This would fail on Windows without the quotes)
`shx popd`	Just use plain old `popd`
`shx dirs`	No workaround
`shx set`	See below
`shx exit`	Just use plain old `exit`
`shx exec`	Instead of `shx exec cmd`, just use plain old `cmd`
`shx ShellString`	No workaround (but why would you want this?)

Shx options

Shx allows you to modify its behavior by passing arguments. Here's a list of supported options:

`set` flag	`shell.config` setting	shx command	Effect
`-e`	`config.fatal = true`	Not supported	Exit upon first error
`-v`	`config.verbose = true`	`shx --verbose cd foo`	Log the command as it's run
`-f`	`config.noglob = true`	`shx --noglob cat '*.txt'`	Don't expand wildcards
N/A	`config.silent = true`	`shx --silent cd noexist`	Don't show error output