Question

How to run a function in a script from the command line in Node.js?

I'm trying to execute a specific function from a Node.js script directly through the command line. The script contains multiple functions, but I want to know how to target and run just one of them without modifying the script every time. What’s the right way to approach this?

Answer 1

To run a specific function within a Node.js script directly from the command line, follow these steps:

Structure Your Script: Export the function from your Node.js file. For example:

// myScript.js

function myFunction() {

    console.log("Function executed!");

}

module.exports = myFunction;

Use Node's require and Execute: From the command line, invoke the script and the desired function like this:

node -e "require('./myScript')()"

Here, the -e flag allows you to execute a one-liner where the require statement loads the script, and the function is invoked directly.

This method is useful when you want to avoid modifying the script or adding specific command-line argument parsing logic.