1. shx
Portable Shell Commands for Node
shx
Package: shx
Created by: shelljs
Last modified: Wed, 05 Apr 2023 02:09:28 GMT
Version: 0.3.4
License: MIT
Downloads: 2,934,477
Repository: https://github.com/shelljs/shx

Install

npm install shx
yarn add shx

Shx

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

shx is proudly tested on every node release since v6!

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"
  }
}

Tip: because Windows treats single quotes (ex. 'some string') differently
than double quotes, we
recommend

wrapping your arguments in double quotes for cross platform compatibility (ex.
"some string").

Command reference

Shx exposes most ShellJS
commands
. If a command is
not listed here, assume it's supported!

sed

Shx provides unix-like syntax on top of shell.sed(). So ShellJS code like:

 shell.sed('-i', /original string/g, 'replacement', 'filename.txt');

would turn into the following Shx command:

 shx sed -i "s/original string/replacement/g" filename.txt

Note: like unix sed, shx sed treats / as a special character, and
this must be
escaped
(as
\/ in the shell, or \\/ in package.json) if you intend to use this
character in either the regex or replacement string. Do not escape /
characters in the file path.

Unsupported Commands

As mentioned above, most ShellJS commands are supported in ShellJS. Due to the
differences in execution environments between ShellJS and shx (JS vs CLI) the
following 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
Nate Fischer Ari Porad Levi Thomason

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