We are thrilled to announce the release of zx v8.0.0! 🎉

With this release, we have introduced a lot of new features, improvements, and bug fixes. We have also made some breaking changes, so please read the following release notes carefully.

🚀 New Shiny Features

Squashed deps: we use esbuild with custom plugins to forge js bundles and dts-bundle-generator for typings ^{2acb0f, #722}

More safety, more stability and significantly reduced installation time. Zx now is ~20x smaller.

npx zx@8.0.0
npm install zx@8.0.0

Options presets are here. To implement this, we have also completely refactored the zx core, and now it's available as a separate package – zurk
^{aeec7a, #733, #600}

const $$ = $({quiet: true})
await $$`echo foo`

$({nothrow: true})`exit 1`

We have introduced $.sync() API
^{1f8c8b, #738, #681, 1d8aa9, #739}

import {$} from 'zx'

const { output } = $.sync`echo foo` // foo

You can also override the internal API to implement pools, test mocking, etc.

$.spawnSync = () => {} // defaults to `child_process.spawnSync`

The input option is now available to pass data to the command.
^{b38972, #736}

const p1 = $({ input: 'foo' })`cat`
const p2 = $({ input: Readable.from('bar') })`cat`
const p3 = $({ input: Buffer.from('baz') })`cat`
const p4 = $({ input: p3 })`cat`
const p5 = $({ input: await p3 })`cat`

AbortController has been introduced to abort the command execution. It's available via the ac option.
^{fa4a7b, #734, #527}

const ac = new AbortController()
const p = $({ ac })`sleep 9999`

setTimeout(() => ac.abort(), 100)

If not specified, the default instance will be used. Abortion trigger is also available via PromiseResponse:

const p = $`sleep 9999`
setTimeout(() => p.abort(), 100)

kill method is exposed now. To terminate any (not only zx starter) process:

import { kill } from 'zx'

await kill(123)
await kill(123, 'SIGKILL')

Btw, we have replaced ps-tree with @webpod/ps & @webpod/ingrid, and exposed ps util:

import {ps} from 'zx'

const children = await ps.tree(123)
/**
 [
 {pid: 124, ppid: 123},
 {pid: 125, ppid: 123}
 ]
 */
const children2 = await ps.tree({pid: 123, recursive: true})
/**
 [
 {pid: 124, ppid: 123},
 {pid: 125, ppid: 123},

 {pid: 126, ppid: 124},
 {pid: 127, ppid: 124},
 {pid: 128, ppid: 124},

 {pid: 129, ppid: 125},
 {pid: 130, ppid: 125},
 ]
 */

Introduced $.postfix option. It's like a $.prefix, but for the end of the command. ^{fb9554, #756, #536}

import {$} from 'zx'

$.postfix = '; exit $LastExitCode' // for PowerShell compatibility

minimist API exposed
^#661

import { minimist } from 'zx'

const argv = minimist(process.argv.slice(2), {})

Fixed npm package name pattern on --install mode ^{956dcc, #659, #660, #663}

import '@qux/pkg'       // valid
import '@qux/pkg/entry' // was invalid before and valid now

⚠️ Breaking changes

We've tried our best to avoid them, but it was necessary.

1. $.verbose is set to false by default, but errors are still printed to stderr. Set $.quiet = true to suppress all output.
   ^{cafb90, #745, #569}

   $.verbose = true // everything works like in v7
   
   $.quiet = true // to completely turn off logging
   

2. ssh API was dropped. Install webpod package instead.
   ^{8925a1, #750}

   // import {ssh} from 'zx' ↓
   import {ssh} from 'webpod'
   
   const remote = ssh('user@host')
   await remote`echo foo`
   

3. zx is not looking for powershell anymore, on Windows by default. If you still need it, use the usePowerShell helper:
   ^{24dcf3, #757}

   import { usePowerShell, useBash } from 'zx'
   
   usePowerShell() // to enable powershell
   useBash()       // switch to bash, the default
   

4. Process cwd synchronization between $ invocations is disabled by default. This functionality is provided via an async hook and can now be controlled directly.
   ^{d79a63, #765}

   import { syncProcessCwd } from 'zx'
   
   syncProcessCwd() // restores legacy v7 behavior
   

🧰 Other Improvements

• added dev (snapshot publish) releases 0c97b9 #723
• tsconfig: dropped lib DOM fe0356 #735, #619, #722)
• implemented ProcessPromise.valueOf() to simplify value comparisons 0640b8, #737, #690
• enhanced --install API: use depkeek for deps extraction 1a03a6
• removed --experimental toggle, all APIs are available by default 8a7a8f, #751
• added minute support in duration b02fd5, #703, #704
• enhanced stack extraction to support bun 2026d4, #752
• fixed spinner issue on weird TTY 1124e3, #755, #607
• migrated tests to native node:test cd1835