child_process.spawn adds flags that might cause non-native shells to fail on windows

[idanpa]

• Version: 8.11.1
• Platform: Windows 10 64 bit
• Subsystem: child_process

On Windows, when child_process.spawn is given the optional shell parameter (#4598) it makes an assumption that the shell would understand the /c /s flags (cmd.exe or powershell).
This limits the option to use bash (using WSL) on windows.
Can by bypassed by:

args = ["\"", cmd].concat(args, "\"");
currentSync = child.spawn("bash -c", args, {stdio: 'pipe', shell: "cmd.exe"});

But would be nice to have a better solution.

Thanks,
Idan

[vsemozhetbyt]

FWIW, we warn about this in docs:

https://nodejs.org/api/child_process.html#child_process_shell_requirements

[bnoordhuis]

Yep, and it doesn't seem like an unreasonable restriction to me. I don't really see how we could improve it either.

[idanpa]

@bnoordhuis what do you say about these options:

1. Having shellOptions arg with default value '/d /s /c' on windows and '-sc' on unix
2. Skip adding the options if shell string already contains flags (having either " -" or " /"
3. Having 2 different optional args - shshell and ntshell that gets the right options accordingly (without checking the platform)

[bnoordhuis]

(1) and (3) are fixing a problem that isn't really a problem (don't use .shell, spawn the shell directly) and (2) is the kind of heuristic that can have false positives (e.g. / is also a path separator.)

I mean, yes, there are ways to solve your issue with more API options but the extra complexity doesn't seem worth it.

[bnoordhuis]

I'll close this out. It's been two weeks and no one spoke out in favor of making changes.