Terminate node.js script from another node.js script

Question

I have a node.js script that runs another node.js script named 'app.js' using child_process.exec(). I need something that can terminate 'app.js'. Either a command that I can use in command line or something else in node.js.

I'm not trying to kill all node processes, only the process of 'app.js'. My computer is running Windows 10.

Right now the code looks like this:

let isLaunched = false;
const exec = require('child_process').exec;

function launch() {
    if (isLaunched) {
        isLaunched = false;

        // Something that terminates app.js

    } else {
        isLaunched = true;
        exec('node app.js');
    }
}

I call the function from a button in HTML.

<button onclick="launch()">Launch</button>

How can I do this in node.js?

If you keep a reference to the child_process you can send it a kill signal from the "main" process using child_process.kill([signal]). As a side note, why aren't you using child_process.fork(modulePath[, args][, options]) since you're spawning another nodejs process? — Jake Holzinger
– Jake Holzinger, Commented Jul 15, 2019 at 20:21

Lennon McLean · Accepted Answer · 2020-06-10 12:04:21Z

1

var isLaunched = false;
var { exec } = require('child_process');
var myProcess; //use whatever name
function launch() {
    if (isLaunched) {
        isLaunched = false;
        myProcess.kill('SIGKILL');
    } else {
        isLaunched = true;
        myProcess = exec('node app.js');
    }
}

answered Jun 10, 2020 at 12:04

Lennon McLean

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1 Comment

Lennon McLean Over a year ago

sigkill can be replaced with sigterm or sigint, depending on what you want.

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