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

Team

Nate Fischer	Ari Porad	Levi Thomason