Node.js - Call a system command or external command

Question

I've an issue with Node.js. With Python, if I wanted to execute an external command, I used to do something like this:

import subprocess
subprocess.call("bower init", shell=True)

I've read about child_process.exec and spawn in Node.js but I can't do what I want. And what's I want?

I want to execute an external command (like bower init) and see its output in real time and interact with bower itself. The only thing I can do is receive the final output but that don't allow me to interact with the program.

Regards

Edit: I saw this question but the answer doesn't work here. I want to send input when the external program needs it.

Answer 1

How about this?

var childProcess = require('child_process');

var child = childProcess.spawn('bower', ['init'], {
  env: process.env,
  stdio: 'inherit'
});

child.on('close', function(code) {
  process.exit(code);
});

Seemed to work for me