(This is a duplicate issue also reported on [Node.js repository](https://github.com/joyent/node/issues/9057)) The [child_process.exec](http://nodejs.org/docs/v0.11.13/api/child_process.html#child_process_child_process_exec_command_options_callback) documentation says: > `maxBuffer` specifies the largest amount of data allowed on stdout or stderr - if this value is exceeded then the child process is killed and I assume this also apply to `child_process.execFile`, `child_process.spawnSync`, `child_process.execFileSync` and `child_process.execSync`, since all of them has the `maxBuffer` option. To create scripts that exec commands that give a HUGE output (like `make`) this can be a problem, specially since you don't know how big they can be and at the same time, you are not worried to store their output (showing it on the console it's usually enough) and also they would waste a lot of memory in useless data, so I propose to add an option to don't buffer the output at all. A good way to enable this is to set `maxBuffer` to a negative number (a special case of `maxNumber = 0` would be still a valid value when you don't expect the command to give an output at all, and if so it's due to an error...).