vanilla.js

var refreshDb = function(done) {
  spawn(neo4j, ['stop']).on('exit', function() {
    spawn('rm', ['-rf', datapath]).on('exit', function() {
      spawn('mkdir', ['-p', datapath]).on('exit', function() {
        updateConf(TEST_INSTANCE_PORT, function() {
          var n = spawn(neo4j, ['start'])
          n.stdout.on('data', function(d) { 
            process.stdout.write(d.toString()); 
          })
          n.on('exit', function() { 
            done();
          });
        });
      });
    });
  });
}

with-async.js

var refreshDb = function(done) {
  async.series([
    function stopNeo(next) {
      spawn(neo4j, ['stop']).on('exit', function() { next(); })
    },
    function removeDataDir(next) {
      spawn('rm', ['-rf', datapath]).on('exit', function() { next(); });
    },
    function recreateDatDir(next) {
      spawn('mkdir', ['-p', datapath]).on('exit', function() { next(); });
    },
    function updateConfiguration(next) {
      updateConf(TEST_INSTANCE_PORT, next);
    },
    function startNeo(next) {
      var n = spawn(neo4j, ['start'])
      n.stdout.on('data', function(d) { 
        process.stdout.write(d.toString()); 
      })
      n.on('exit', function() { next(); });
    }
  ], done);
};