How do I escape a string for a shell command in node?

javascript shell escaping node.js v8
Maciek picture Maciek · Nov 22, 2009 · Viewed 30.4k times · Source

In nodejs, the only way to execute external commands is via sys.exec(cmd). I'd like to call an external command and give it data via stdin. In nodejs there does yet not appear to be a way to open a command and then push data to it (only to exec and receive its standard+error outputs), so it appears the only way I've got to do this right now is via a single string command such as:

var dangerStr = "bad stuff here";
sys.exec("echo '" + dangerStr + "' | somecommand");

Most answers to questions like this have focused on either regex which doesn't work for me in nodejs (which uses Google's V8 Javascript engine) or native features from other languages like Python.

I'd like to escape dangerStr so that it's safe to compose an exec string like the one above. If it helps, dangerStr will contain JSON data.

Answer

Sylvain Zimmer picture Sylvain Zimmer · Oct 7, 2011

This is what I use:

var escapeShell = function(cmd) {
  return '"'+cmd.replace(/(["\s'$`\\])/g,'\\$1')+'"';
};

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