Node.js getaddrinfo ENOTFOUND

Question

When using Node.js to try and get the html content of the following web page:

eternagame.wikia.com/wiki/EteRNA_Dictionary

I get the following error:

events.js:72
    throw er; // Unhandled 'error' event
          ^
Error: getaddrinfo ENOTFOUND
    at errnoException (dns.js:37:11)
    at Object.onanswer [as oncomplete] (dns.js:124:16)

I did already look up this error on stackoverflow, and realized that this is because node.js cannot find the server from DNS (I think). However, I am not sure why this would be, as my code works perfectly on www.google.com.

Here is my code (practically copied and pasted from a very similar question, except with the host changed):

var http = require("http");

var options = {
    host: 'eternagame.wikia.com/wiki/EteRNA_Dictionary'
};

http.get(options, function (http_res) {
    // initialize the container for our data
    var data = "";

    // this event fires many times, each time collecting another piece of the response
    http_res.on("data", function (chunk) {
        // append this chunk to our growing `data` var
        data += chunk;
    });

    // this event fires *one* time, after all the `data` events/chunks have been gathered
    http_res.on("end", function () {
        // you can use res.send instead of console.log to output via express
        console.log(data);
    });
});

Here is the source where I copied and pasted from : How to make web service calls in Expressjs?

I am not using any modules with node.js.

Thanks for reading.

Batavia

had to use var http = require("http"); or var https = require("https"); based on remote host – Wharton

what does ENOTFOUND mean? – Notability

@CharlieParker it is DNS error meaning address cannot be resolved – Heng

Answer 1

In Node.js HTTP module's documentation: http://nodejs.org/api/http.html#http_http_request_options_callback

You can either call http.get('http://eternagame.wikia.com/wiki/EteRNA_Dictionary', callback), the URL is then parsed with url.parse(); or call http.get(options, callback), where options is

{
  host: 'eternagame.wikia.com',
  port: 8080,
  path: '/wiki/EteRNA_Dictionary'
}

Update

As stated in the comment by @EnchanterIO, the port field is also a separate option; and the protocol http:// shouldn't be included in the host field. Other answers also recommends the use of https module if SSL is required.

Mollusc

My issue was that within my nodejs script I was making a request to the wrong url and this error was thrown. – Hypochlorite

So basically, to sum it up: 1. Only include the actual hostname in host, so no http:// or https://; and 2. Don't include the path in the host property, but rather in the path property. – Deakin

My sample code in Learning Node did not make this clear to me. Now I understand why I got strange failures when I filled out the options {...} block. – Toland

+ make sure the port is also in a separate option attribute from host. – Eugenieeugenio

As stated by @Jorge Bucaran in a separate Answer : IT IS UTTERLY IMPORTANT to not include http:// in the option.host definition (was the main reason of my error) – Marindamarinduque

I had included https:// in the host, removing this helped to fix the issue. Thanks @Mollusc – Spelldown

Answer 2

Another common source of error for

Error: getaddrinfo ENOTFOUND
    at errnoException (dns.js:37:11)
    at Object.onanswer [as oncomplete] (dns.js:124:16)

is writing the protocol (https, https, ...) when setting the host property in options

  // DON'T WRITE THE `http://`
  var options = { 
    host: 'http://yoururl.com',
    path: '/path/to/resource'
  }; 

Aleciaaleck

This is a more general error than the one discussed. – Ideomotor

Thanks @Jorge i am using http.request() which thrown error the same i was going to use http.get() but i just removed http:// with http.request() and worked. – Kalmar

+1 for this. In my case i want to get APP_URL env on vitejs bundler, but the error show up. So i remove the protocol http / https and it works – Josselyn

Good tip! Where then should the protocol be specified? – Killen

Answer 3

My problem was that my OS X (Mavericks) DNS service needed to be restarted. On Catalina and Big Sur DNS cache can be cleared with:

sudo dscacheutil -flushcache; sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder

Older macOS versions see here.

Aliquot

Answer 4

in the options for the HTTP request, switch it to

var options = { host: 'eternagame.wikia.com', 
                path: '/wiki/EteRNA_Dictionary' };

I think that'll fix your problem.

Yeager

Thanks for the answer! This also works perfectly, but I marked the other one as correct because it has a link to the docs and two options. – Batavia

Answer 5

If you need to use https, then use the https library

https = require('https');

// options
var options = {
    host: 'eternagame.wikia.com',
    path: '/wiki/EteRNA_Dictionary'
}

// get
https.get(options, callback);

Ritzy

Answer 6

  var http=require('http');
   http.get('http://eternagame.wikia.com/wiki/EteRNA_Dictionary', function(res){
        var str = '';
        console.log('Response is '+res.statusCode);

        res.on('data', function (chunk) {
               str += chunk;
         });

        res.on('end', function () {
             console.log(str);
        });

  });

Cylindrical

Thanks for the answer! Just like Russbear's answer, this one works perfectly but I marked yuxhuang's correct because he gave both options and a link to the docs. – Batavia

Just code without explaining what the problem and what the solution is not really a complete answer, I don't see what you did in your block of code, thanks. – Ardel

Answer 7

I think http makes request on port 80, even though I mentioned the complete host url in options object. When I run the server application which has the API, on port 80, which I was running previously on port 3000, it worked. Note that to run an application on port 80 you will need root privilege.

Error with the request: getaddrinfo EAI_AGAIN localhost:3000:80

Here is a complete code snippet

var http=require('http');

var options = {
  protocol:'http:',  
  host: 'localhost',
  port:3000,
  path: '/iso/country/Japan',
  method:'GET'
};

var callback = function(response) {
  var str = '';

  //another chunk of data has been recieved, so append it to `str`
  response.on('data', function (chunk) {
    str += chunk;
  });

  //the whole response has been recieved, so we just print it out here
  response.on('end', function () {
    console.log(str);
  });
}

var request=http.request(options, callback);

request.on('error', function(err) {
        // handle errors with the request itself
        console.error('Error with the request:', err.message);        
});

request.end();

Intercross

the important part in this answer is protocol. nodejs http did not support full uri with host: https://server.com, which is mentioned here as well https://mcmap.net/q/86401/-node-js-getaddrinfo-enotfound – Wharton

Answer 8

I fixed this error with this

$ npm info express --verbose
# Error message: npm info retry will retry, error on last attempt: Error: getaddrinfo ENOTFOUND registry.npmjs.org registry.npmjs.org:443
$ nslookup registry.npmjs.org
Server:     8.8.8.8
Address:    8.8.8.8#53

Non-authoritative answer:
registry.npmjs.org  canonical name = a.sni.fastly.net.
a.sni.fastly.net    canonical name = prod.a.sni.global.fastlylb.net.
Name:   prod.a.sni.global.fastlylb.net
Address: 151.101.32.162
$ sudo vim /etc/hosts 
# Add "151.101.32.162 registry.npmjs.org` to hosts file
$ npm info express --verbose
# Works now!

Original source: https://github.com/npm/npm/issues/6686

Tiro

Answer 9

In my case the problem was a malformed URL. I had double slashes in the URL.

Ezara

Answer 10

Note that this issue can also occur if the domain you are referencing goes down (EG. no longer exists.)

Treadwell

Answer 11

in my case error was because of using incorrect host value was

  var options = {
    host: 'graph.facebook.com/v2.12/',
    path: path
  }

should be

  var options = {
    host: 'graph.facebook.com',
    path: path
  }

so anything after .com or .net etc should be moved to path parameter value

Kus

Me too! Removed https:// and it worked great. Many thanks. – Montpelier

Answer 12

I tried it using the request module, and was able to print the body of that page out pretty easily. Unfortunately with the skills I have, I can't help other than that.

Glen

Thanks for the link to the module, but I was hoping to do this with the standard node.js library, using http.get(). – Batavia

Answer 13

I got this error when going from development environment to production environment. I was obsessed with putting https:// on all links. This is not necessary, so it may be a solution for some.

Triumvirate

Answer 14

I was getting the same error and used below below link to get help:

https://nodejs.org/api/http.html#http_http_request_options_callback

I was not having in my code:

req.end();

(NodeJs V: 5.4.0) once added above req.end(); line, I was able to get rid of the error and worked fine for me.

Cato

Answer 15

Try using the server IP address rather than the hostname. This worked for me. Hope it will work for you too.

Homebred

Answer 16

My problem was we were parsing url and generating http_options for http.request();

I was using request_url.host which already had port number with domain name so had to use request_url.hostname.

var request_url = new URL('http://example.org:4444/path');
var http_options = {};

http_options['hostname'] = request_url.hostname;//We were using request_url.host which includes port number
http_options['port'] = request_url.port;
http_options['path'] = request_url.pathname;
http_options['method'] = 'POST';
http_options['timeout'] = 3000;
http_options['rejectUnauthorized'] = false;

Triage

this one did the trick, thanks :) – Collection

Answer 17

I got rid of http and extra slash(/). I just used this 'node-test.herokuapp.com' and it worked.

Gladiate

Answer 18

If still you are facing checkout for proxy setting, for me it was the proxy setting which were missing and was not able to make the request as direct http/https are blocked. So i configured the proxy from my organization while making the request.

npm install https-proxy-agent 
or 
npm install http-proxy-agent

const httpsProxyAgent = require('https-proxy-agent');
const agent = new httpsProxyAgent("http://yourorganzation.proxy.url:8080");
const options = {
  hostname: 'encrypted.google.com',
  port: 443,
  path: '/',
  method: 'GET',
  agent: agent
};

Immigrate

Answer 19

I got this issue resolved by removing non-desirable characters from the password for the connection. For example, I had these characters: <##% and it caused the problem (most probably hash tag was the root cause of the problem).

Karachi