Shell Functions

Functions for executing shell commands and interacting with the operating system. Unlike run_command, these functions execute through a system shell (/bin/sh on Unix, cmd on Windows), so pipes, redirects, and globbing work.

sh(command) -> string

Executes a shell command and returns stdout as a string. Errors if the command fails.

let files = sh("ls -la")
say files

let count = sh("wc -l < data.txt")
say count

shell(command) -> object

Executes a shell command and returns a detailed result object with stdout, stderr, status, and ok fields.

let result = shell("git status")
if result.ok {
    say result.stdout
} else {
    say "Error: " + result.stderr
}

sh_lines(command) -> array

Executes a shell command and returns stdout split into an array of lines.

let files = sh_lines("ls *.fg")
for file in files {
    say "Found: " + file
}

sh_json(command) -> any

Executes a shell command and parses stdout as JSON.

let config = sh_json("cat package.json")
say config.name
say config.version

sh_ok(command) -> bool

Executes a shell command and returns true if the exit code is 0.

if sh_ok("which python3") {
    say "Python 3 is installed"
}

which(program) -> string | null

Returns the full path to program, or null if not found. Equivalent to the Unix which command.

which("node")    // "/usr/local/bin/node"
which("foobar")  // null

cwd() -> string

Returns the current working directory as a string.

say cwd()  // "/home/alice/project"

cd(path) -> null

Changes the current working directory.

cd("/tmp")
say cwd()  // "/tmp"

pipe_to(command, input) -> string

Pipes input as stdin to the given command and returns stdout.

let sorted = pipe_to("sort", "banana\napple\ncherry")
say sorted
// apple
// banana
// cherry