Execute Commands on a Devbox

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Isolated vs StatefulShells

By default, every Devbox command is run in an isolated shell. This means that each command is executed in a new shell session, and the state of the shell is not preserved between commands.

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Using Stateful Shells

Alternatively, you can use the shell_name parameter to use a ‘stateful’ shell. This means that the shell will maintain its state across commands including environment variables and working directory.

As an example, let’s create a series of interdependent commands that need to be run in the same shell:

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Running Commands Synchronously vs Asynchronously

The Runloop shell APIs support both synchronous for immediate results and asynchronous for long-running commands or daemons.

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Synchronous Commands

Synchronous commands allow you to run commands and block until you get the command results including stdout, stderr, and the exit code of the command process.

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Asynchronous Commands

Asynchronous commands allow you to run commands and not block until you get the command results. This can be useful for long-running commands or daemons such as launching dev servers or background processes.