getting raw command line arguments in node.js

Question

How can I get the raw command line arguments in a node.js app, given this example command:

node forwardwithssh.js echo "hello arguments"

process.argv will be [ "node", "/path/to/forwardwith.js", "echo", "hello arguments" ]

And there's no way to reconstruct the original echo "hello arguments" from that (ie. join(" " won't put quotes back). I want the whole original raw string after the script name.

what I want is easily obtained in bash scripts with "$*", is there any equivalent way to get that in node.js?

Note: the intention in particular is to receive a command to be executed somewhere else (eg. thru ssh)

Answer 1

Wrap each of the args in single quotes, and escape and single quotes within each arg to '\'':

var cmd_string = process.argv.map( function(arg){
  return "'" + arg.replace(/'/g, "'\\''") + "'";
}).join(' ');

That would give you a cmd_string containing:

'node' '/path/to/forwardwith.js' 'echo' 'hello arguments'

which can be run directly in another shell.