How do I execute the mongodump command programmatically from node.js?

Question

How do I execute the mongodump command programmatically from node.js?

What is the best way to execute mongodb admin/console commands programmatically from node.js? Specifically, I would like to export a mongodb collection using mongodump after performing a series of inserts. Something like this:

// requires and initializing stuff left out for brevity
db.open(function(err, db) {
    if(!err) {
        db.collection('test', function(err, collection) {
            var docs = [{'hello':'doc1'}, {'hello':'doc2'}, {'hello':'doc3'}];

            collection.insert(docs, {safe:true}, function(err, result) {

                // Execute mongodump in this callback???

            });
        });
    }
});

node.js
mongodb

Answer 1

Try using child_process.spawn(command, args):

var spawn = require('child_process').spawn;

// ...
  collection.insert(docs, {safe:true}, function(err, result) {
    var args = ['--db', 'mydb', '--collection', 'test']
      , mongodump = spawn('/usr/local/bin/mongodump', args);
    mongodump.stdout.on('data', function (data) {
      console.log('stdout: ' + data);
    });
    mongodump.stderr.on('data', function (data) {
      console.log('stderr: ' + data);
    });
    mongodump.on('exit', function (code) {
      console.log('mongodump exited with code ' + code);
    });
  });
// ...

Answer 2

A different year, a different answer.

You can use something like Shelljs to exec mongodump or any other commands that the UNIX shell provides.