normalize command before calling exec/spawn on windows?

Question

normalize command before calling exec/spawn on windows?

Let's say I'm trying to call ffmpeg from the current directory. On linux I'd call exec or spawn with './ffmpeg'. In order for this code to be portable to windows do I need to strip off the './' or is that somehow taken care of for me?

node.js

Answer 1

This is just half an answer: welcome to anyone to modify it and expand it.

Here is the result of my digging in the source code:

The exec method does a small check of the platform (taken from the source):

if (process.platform === 'win32') {
    file = 'cmd.exe';
    args = ['/s', '/c', '"' + command + '"'];
    options = util._extend({}, options);
    options.windowsVerbatimArguments = true;
  } else {
    file = '/bin/sh';
    args = ['-c', command];
  }

I don't know how you have added ffmpeg to your PATH on Windows, so it really depends on your setup. In any case, simply pass to exec the command as if you would be running it from the cmd.exe shell.

I however could not find something similar for spawn.