TopLevelProcess

This utility library address a deficiency in node core as it relates to identifying whether or not a process was launched by a parent node process via child_process.spawn() or child_process.fork().

If you are interested you can read the original feature request to the node team here or see the pull request here in order to learn about the very good reasons why this was not included in node core.

Installation

Installation is pretty standard...

npm install TopLevelProcess

Usage

This utility augments the existing node process and child_process objects. To use, simply require in any node process.

require("TopLevelProcess");

Once required, any usage of child_process.spawn() or child_process.fork() will correctly identify itself as having a parent node process to the spawned/forked process.

Also once required, process.isTopLevelNodeProcess() will be available and will return true if the node process was started as a top level process or if it was a spawn/fork from a upstream node process.

Caveats

With regards to child_process.exec() and child_process.execSync()... exec is different from spawn/fork and does not really seem to fit the same paradigm for this utility.