child_pty

child_pty is a module for creating and interacting with pseudo terminals. It tries to be as minimal as possible and borrows most of its functionality from child_process.

child_pty was written as a replacement for pty.js.

API

It's mostly the same API child_process with the following differences:

• Only child_pty.spawn() is supported

• The options argument of child_pty.spawn() has the following changes:

  • new field: options.columns: columns of the instanciated PTY.
  • new field: options.rows: rows of the instanciated PTY.
  • options.detached and options.stdio are ignored.

• ChildProcess in child_pty vs ChildProcess in child_process:

  • #stderr is not available. Use #stdout instead.

  • There's #stdout.resize(size) to resize the underlying PTY. The size attribute should have the following fields:

    • size.columns: columns of the instanciated PTY.
    • size.rows: rows of the instanciated PTY.

  • There's a #term object with the following properties:

    • #master_fd master file descriptor int
    • #slave_fd master file descriptor int
    • #ttyname`: name of the underlying TTY as reported by ttyname()(eg:/dev/ttys016``).

  • child processes won't get an EOF once you close stdin. You have to call ChildProcess#kill() explicitly.

Examples

This example opens a PTY with /bin/sh, resizes the terminal, executes ls -l, and exits the shell.

var child_pty = require('child_pty');
var child = child_pty.spawn('/bin/sh', []);
child.stdout.on('resize', function() {
	console.log('New columns: ' + this.columns);
	console.log('New rows:    ' + this.rows);
}).pipe(process.stdout);
child.stdout.resize({ columns: 80, rows: 48 });
child.stdin.write('ls -l\n');
child.stdin.write('exit\n');

Changelog

• v0.1 - initial release
• v0.2 - fix job control for shells
• v0.3 - API changes to fit child_process
• v0.4 - remove deprecated APIs
• v0.5 - MacOS support