Starting couchdb from node.js via exec or spawn

I'm attempting to start couchdb from node.js if it hasn't already been started. Code like the following works for basic commands like pwd but not for couchdb :

var sys = require('util') var exec = require('child_process').exec; var child; // executes `pwd` child = exec("pwd", function (error, stdout, stderr) { sys.print('stdout: ' + stdout); sys.print('stderr: ' + stderr); if (error !== null) { console.log('exec error: ' + error); } });

I've tried using ' couchdb ' & ' /usr/local/bin/couchdb ' as arguments to exec.

Problem courtesy of: james_womack

Solution

I have a working example now using CoffeeScript:

childproc = require "child_process" couchdb = childproc.spawn "couchdb" couchdb.stdout.setEncoding "utf8" buffer = "" couchdb.stdout.on "data", (data) -> lines = (buffer + data).split(/\r?\n/) buffer = lines.pop() lines.forEach (line, index) -> console.log line couchdb.stdout.on "end", -> if buffer.length > 0 console.log buffer buffer = "" console.log 'process ended'

See my gist for a fuller example in CS, Iced CS & JS

EDITHere is the ouput in javascript:

var buffer, childproc, couchdb; childproc = require("child_process"); couchdb = childproc.spawn("couchdb"); couchdb.stdout.setEncoding("utf8"); buffer = ""; couchdb.stdout.on("data", function(data) { var lines; lines = (buffer + data).split(/\r?\n/); buffer = lines.pop(); return lines.forEach(function(line, index) { return console.log(line); }); }); couchdb.stdout.on("end", function() { if (buffer.length > 0) { console.log(buffer); buffer = ""; } return console.log('process ended'); });

Solution courtesy of: james_womack