How to destroy a Node.js http.request connection nicely?

Question

If I run it in the command line, the program will stop after client.destroy();

var client = http.get(options, 
        function(res) {
            console.log(res.statusCode);
            client.destroy();
          }
);

However, it is not the case when I put the client.destroy() inside the res.on('end'):

var client = http.get(options, 
        function(res) {
            console.log(res.statusCode);
            res.on('end', function() {
                console.log("done");
                client.destroy();
            });
          }
);

It will throw exception because the http.socket is null. so, I can't destroy it.

IN this case, the program execution will hang there and will not end. What can I do to stop it? (other than process.exit());

Clere

Answer 1

if it's single request you can just set shouldKeepAlive to false

var request = http.get(options, 
        function(res) {
            console.log(res.statusCode);
          }
);
request.shouldKeepAlive = false

or send Connection: close header

You can't access socket because it is detached in the request 'end' event handler

Krugersdorp

when I do 'request.shouldKeepAlive" , does it affect anything on the socket pooling? – Clere

it probably better to use Connection header, it is analysed here - github.com/joyent/node/blob/master/lib/http.js#L442 This affects request shouldKeepAlive flag – Krugersdorp

Guys, stop linking line numbers in "master" -- it's useless -- you can't link a line number on a moving target. – Pantaloon

Answer 2

Call res.req.destroy().

See: https://nodejs.org/api/http.html#requestdestroyerror

Montymonument

Answer 3

To your question: request created by http.get or http.request will close its socket(connection) by default. You don't have to close it.

To your code example: Nodejs has registered res.on('end', responseOnEnd) before your "res.on('end', yourCb)". responseOnEnd will close the socket. Because responseOnEnd is called before yourCb,so you can't destory the socket in res.on('end', yourCb) .

Coenobite