Run shell script with node.js (childProcess)

The exec function callback has error, stdout and stderr arguments passed to it. See if they can help you diagnose the problem by spitting them out to the console:

exec('~/./play.sh /media/external/' + req.params.movie,
  function (error, stdout, stderr) {
    console.log('stdout: ' + stdout);
    console.log('stderr: ' + stderr);
    if (error !== null) {
      console.log('exec error: ' + error);
    }
});