Run programmatically

[g-rodigy]

I try run glyphhanger in node like this

const cp = require('child_process')

cp.exec('glyphhanger --version')
cp.exec('glyphhanger --subset="*.ttf"')

It's not working and process never ends. Empirically, I found a place where this happens - here. We waiting for input but it doesn't happen. Can you help me?

[Paul-Hebert]

@g-rodigy not sure if you're still running into this or not.

I ran into a similar issue but was able to get it working using the spawn method:

const cp = require('child_process');

const glyphhangerProcess = cp.spawn(
  'glyphhanger',
  [
    // Pass in flags here
    '--subset="*.tff"',
  ],
  { stdio: 'inherit' }
);

glyphhangerProcess.on('close', () => {
  console.log('glyphhanger completed');
});

[SamuelMiller]

Any suggestions on how I could create a glyphhanger gulp task/function in gulpfile.js, perhaps using the above code? Thanks.

[Paul-Hebert]

@SamuelMiller , it's been a little while since I wrote a gulp task, but I think the majority of the code above could be repurposed for that. I think the main relevant change would be to call the cb() function from the gulp task when the task completes. Maybe something like this?

const cp = require('child_process');

function runGlyphhanger(cb) {
  const glyphhangerProcess = cp.spawn(
    'glyphhanger',
    [
      // Pass in flags here
      '--subset="*.tff"',
    ],
    { stdio: 'inherit' }
  );
  
  glyphhangerProcess.on('close', () => {
    console.log('glyphhanger completed');
    // Run `cb` to complete the Gulp task
    cb();
  });
}

// This assumes this is the only task in this file and you want to export it for
// use in other Gulp files.
// If that's not true you could change this to a call to `series` or 
// `parallel` to run this task and other tasks
// @see https://gulpjs.com/docs/en/getting-started/creating-tasks/
exports.default = runGlyphhanger;

I haven't tested this code but it seems like it should work. If you try it and get an error let me know and I may be able to help (though I'll be out of the office for the rest of the week after today)

[SamuelMiller]

Thanks for responding. When I return to the part of my current web project that will be using glyphhanger to optimize my fonts, I'll test out the code and get back to you.

[ShahriarKh]

Try execSync:

// example:
const result = execSync('npx glyphhanger http://localhost:3001').toString();
console.log(result)

[zachleat]

Related to #23