Running native commands in WebExt

example.js

chrome.browserAction.onClick.addListener(() => {
  var port = chrome.runtime.invokeNativeCommand("livestreamer", ["https://twitch.tv/pax"]);
  port.onDisconnect.addListener(() => {
    // TODO could we get the exit code here?
    console.log("Livestreamer quit");
  });
});

invokeNativeCommand.md

chrome.runtime.invokeNativeCommand(command, arguments)

Method to run a native command without having to write a native host. Requires a permission nativeCommands.

Arguments

• {string} command Command to execute. Has to be a command binary in the system path and not a path to a binary.
• {Array.<string>} [arguments] Optionally pass some arguments to the command

Returns

runtime.Port though modified to be plain stdio, without message sizes.

Todo

• Some kind of error if the command doesn't exist, maybe an onNotFound event sink on the port.
• Figure out what kind of encoding the stdio communication should have. I'd figure using system encoding or utf-8 should be fine, use connectNative for binary operations.
• Forbid the use of system commands (so all unix and dos commands, as well as ps)

manifest.json

{
  "name": "Open Livestreamer",
  "version": "0.0.1",
  "manifest_version": 2,
  "background": {
    "scripts": [ "example.js" ]
  },
  "browser_action": {
    "default_icon": {
      "32": "icon.png"
    }
  },
  "icons": {
    "32": "icon.png"
  },
  "permissions": [ "nativeCommands" ],
  "applications": {
    "gecko": {
      "id": "native-command@example.com",
      "strict_min_version": "90.0"
    }
  }
}