How can I get a list of callbacks in the Node work queue? (or, Why won't Node exit?)

Question

It says on the Node.js about page:

Node exits the event loop when there are no more callbacks to perform.

Is there a way to find

Answer 1

You can use process._getActiveHandles() and process._getActiveRequests()

See this discussion in node.js mailing list.

update: there is a good package for this - https://github.com/mafintosh/why-is-node-running

Answer 2

There is a npm module wtfnode to show what keep the nodejs app running when you sends SIGINT (ctrl-c) to it.

It internal uses process._getActiveHandles() as mentioned in @andrey-sidrov's answer. The benefit of using wtfnode is that it provides easy-to-read output.