Use Command Line From Illustrator Script?

Just sharing my workaround (for Mac). This specific example shows how to zip folders.

With the help of AppleScript, I'm running terminal commands in Illustrator like this:

//Part 1: Extendscript part looks like this

//1. Get terminal command in form of string
var zipTerminalCommand = terminalCmdToZip();

//2. export terminal command string to a text doc
saveTextDoc(zipTerminalCommand)

//3. Run apple script app to use terminal command
//Change "YourUserName" part
myAppleScriptPath = "/Users/YourUserName/Desktop/YourAppleScript.app"
runAppleScript(myAppleScriptPath)

//=========================================
// FUNCITONS
//=========================================

//Returns the terminal command to zip a folder
function terminalCmdToZip(){

//Change "YourUserName" part
    var myFoldersParent = "/Users/YourUserName/Desktop"; //path to the parent folder of the file you want to zip.
    var nameOfFolderToBeZipped = "woo!";  //name of the folder being zipped
    var nameOfNewZippedFolder = nameOfFolderToBeZipped + ".zip"; //Name of new zip, not a path.
    var terminalCommand = 'cd ' + "'" + myFoldersParent + "'" + ' && zip -r -X ' + "'" + nameOfNewZippedFolder + "'" + ' ' + "'" + nameOfFolderToBeZipped + "'";

    return terminalCommand
}

//exports a text doc with your terminal command
function saveTextDoc(saveThis) {
    try{
        var pathToClipboardDoc = "~/Documents/terminalCmd.txt";
        var myDataLog = new File(pathToClipboardDoc);
        myDataLog.open("w");
        myDataLog.write(saveThis);
        myDataLog.close();

    }catch(err){}
}

//Runs AppleScript
function runAppleScript(pathToScript){
    myScript = File(pathToScript)
    if (myScript.exists) {
        myScript.execute();
    }
}

This is the AppleScript app you'll have to make for this to work

--Get info from text doc for variable
--Change the "YourUserName" part
set textDoc to POSIX file "/Users/YourUserName/Documents/terminalCmd.txt"
set textDocContents to (read textDoc)
--display dialog textDocContents

do shell script textDocContents

Feel free to share if you have a Windows workaround too.