run-commands

Run any custom commands with Nx

Properties can be configured in workspace.json when defining the executor, or when invoking it. Read more about how to use executors and the CLI here: https://nx.dev/node/getting-started/cli-overview#running-tasks.

Examples

workspace.json:

1//...
2"frontend": {
3    "architect": {
4        //...
5        "ls-project-root": {
6            "builder": "@nrwl/workspace:run-commands",
7            "options": {
8                "command": "ls apps/frontend/src"
9            }
10        }
11    }
12}

nx run frontend:ls-project-root

Chaining commands, interpolating args and setting the cwd

Let's say each of our workspace projects has some custom bash scripts in a scripts folder. We want a simple way to create empty bash script files for a given project, that have the execute permissions already set.

Given that Nx knows our workspace structure, we should be able to give it a project and the name of our script, and it should take care of the rest.

The commands option accepts as many commands as you want. By default, they all run in parallel. You can run them sequentially by setting parallel: false:

1"create-script": {
2    "builder": "@nrwl/workspace:run-commands",
3    "options": {
4        "commands": [
5          "mkdir -p scripts",
6          "touch scripts/{args.name}.sh",
7          "chmod +x scripts/{args.name}.sh"
8        ],
9        "cwd": "apps/frontend",
10        "parallel": false
11    }
12}

By setting the cwd option, each command will run in the apps/frontend folder.

We run the above with:

nx run frontend:create-script --args="--name=example"

or simply with:

nx run frontend:create-script --name=example

Arguments forwarding

When interpolation is not present in the command, all arguments are forwarded to the command by default.

This is useful when you need to pass raw argument strings to your command.

For example, when you run:

nx run frontend:webpack --args="--config=example.config.js"

1"webpack": {
2    "builder": "@nrwl/workspace:run-commands",
3    "options": {
4        "command": "webpack"
5    }
6}

The above command will execute: webpack --config=example.config.js

This functionality can be disabled by using commands and expanding each command into an object that sets the forwardAllArgs option to false as shown below:

1"webpack": {
2    "builder": "@nrwl/workspace:run-commands",
3    "options": {
4        "commands": [
5            {
6                "command": "webpack",
7                "forwardAllArgs": false
8            }
9        ]
10    }
11}

Custom done conditions

Normally, run-commands considers the commands done when all of them have finished running. If you don't need to wait until they're all done, you can set a special string, that considers the command finished the moment the string appears in stdout or stderr:

1"finish-when-ready": {
2    "builder": "@nrwl/workspace:run-commands",
3    "options": {
4        "command": "echo 'READY' && sleep 5 && echo 'FINISHED'",
5        "readyWhen": "READY"
6    }
7}

nx run frontend:finish-when-ready

The above command will finish immediately, instead of waiting for 5 seconds.

Nx Affected

The true power of run-commands comes from the fact that it runs through nx, which knows about your dependency graph. So you can run custom commands only for the projects that have been affected by a change.

We can create some configurations to generate docs, and if run using nx affected, it will only generate documentation for the projects that have been changed:

nx affected --target=generate-docs

1//...
2"frontend": {
3    "architect": {
4        //...
5        "generate-docs": {
6            "builder": "@nrwl/workspace:run-commands",
7            "options": {
8                "command": "npx compodoc -p apps/frontend/tsconfig.app.json"
9            }
10        }
11    }
12},
13"api": {
14    "architect": {
15        //...
16        "generate-docs": {
17            "builder": "@nrwl/workspace:run-commands",
18            "options": {
19                "command":  "npx compodoc -p apps/api/tsconfig.app.json"
20            }
21        }
22    }
23}

Properties

args

Type: string

Extra arguments. You can pass them as follows: nx run project:target --args='--wait=100'. You can then use {args.wait} syntax to interpolate them in the workspace config file. See example above

color

Default: false

Type: boolean

Use colors when showing output of command

command

Type: string

Command to run in child process

commands

Type: array

cwd

Type: string

Current working directory of the commands.

envFile

Type: string

You may specify a custom .env file path

outputPath

Type: string | string[]

Allows you to specify where the build artifacts are stored. This allows Nx Cloud to pick them up correctly, in the case that the build artifacts are placed somewhere other than the top level dist folder.

parallel

Default: true

Type: boolean

Run commands in parallel

readyWhen

Type: string

String to appear in stdout or stderr that indicates that the task is done. This option can only be used when parallel is set to true. If not specified, the task is done when all the child processes complete.