How to get path of nodejs executable on runtime

Question

I have to execute a node command within another node process as shown below:

require('child_process').exec (`${<path of current node executable>} someModule`);

How can i retrieve the node executable path on runtime to execute this command.

Answer 1

process.execPath should be what you require.

process.argv0 is not alway pointed to node binary.

As the in the official Node document.

The process.argv0 property stores a read-only copy of the original value of argv[0] passed when Node.js starts.

In the example of the official document, it demo the case that process.argv0 is not the node binary. customArgv0 is for exec's -a flag.

$ bash -c 'exec -a customArgv0 ./node'
> process.argv[0]
'/Volumes/code/external/node/out/Release/node'
> process.argv0
'customArgv0'

If you are trying to execute another node app, how about taking a look at child_process.fork?

You code then should be as follows.

// fork()'s first argument should be the same as require();
// except that fork() executes the module in a child process
require('child_process').fork(`someModule`);

As stated in document, fork() use the same node binary as process.execPath, or you can specify other node binary to execute the module.

By default, child_process.fork() will spawn new Node.js instances using the process.execPath of the parent process. The execPath property in the options object allows for an alternative execution path to be used.