Question

May be duplicate.

I would like to write javascript which can execute linux command in firefox (seems to be impossible but asking with hope)

from googling, found that it is possible for IE through “ActiveXObject”.

here is sample code:

<SCRIPT type="text/javascript" LANGUAGE="JavaScript">
  function executeCommands(inputparms)
   {
  // Instantiate the Shell object and invoke 
   its execute method.

    var oShell = new ActiveXObject("Shell.Application");

    var commandtoRun = "C:\\Winnt\\Notepad.exe";
    if (inputparms != "")
     {
      var commandParms = document.Form1.filename.value;
     }

 // Invoke the execute method.  
     oShell.ShellExecute(commandtoRun, commandParms, 
      "", "open", "1");
  }
</SCRIPT>

So, Is there any equivalent of ActiveXObject in javascript for mozilla apps?
I’m quite new to javascript so please, correct mistakes if any.

Thanks!

Answer 1

In a Firefox add-on you can use nsIProcess. Something along these lines:

var file = Components.classes["@mozilla.org/file/local;1"]
                     .createInstance(Components.interfaces.nsILocalFile);
file.initWithPath("C:\\Winnt\\Notepad.exe");
var process = Components.classes["@mozilla.org/process/util;1"]
              .createInstance(Components.interfaces.nsIProcess);
process.init(file);
process.runAsync(["c:\\file.txt"]);

This API is only accessible to privileged code of course.