Recover from Uncaught Exception in Node.JS

Question

OK, so I have a problem. If an uncaught exception occurs while I am handling an HTTP request, I have no opportunity to call the end() method on the http.ServerResponse object. Therefore, the server hangs forever and never fulfills the request.

Here's an example:

var express = require('express');
var app = express.createServer();
var reqNum = 0;
app.get('/favicon.ico', function(req, res) {res.send(404);});
app.get('*', function(req, res, next) {
    console.log("Request #", ++reqNum, ":", req.url);
    next();
});
app.get('/error', function(req, res, next) {
    throw new Error("Problem occurred");
});
app.get('/hang', function(req, res, next) {
    console.log("In /hang route");
    setTimeout(function() {
        console.log("In /hang callback");
        if(reqNum >= 3)
            throw new Error("Problem occurred");
        res.send("It worked!");
    }, 2000);
});
process.on('uncaughtException', function(err) {
    console.log("Uncaught exception!", err);
});
app.listen(8080);

If you visit /error, an exception occurs, but it is caught. The user receives an error message - no problem. If I visit /hang, though, the server will eventually throw an uncaught exception and hang forever. Any subsequent requests for /hang will hang.

This sucks. Any advice for how to fix this issue?

Answer 1

When an uncaught exception occurs, you're in an unclean state. Let the process die and restart it, there's nothing else you can do to safely bring it back to a known-good state. Use forever, it'll restart your process as soon as it dies.

Answer 2

If error is thrown synchronously, express won't stop working, only returning 500.

this.app.get("/error", (request, response) => {
  throw new Error("shouldn't stop");
});

If error is thrown asynchronously, express will crash. But according to it's official documentation, there is still a way to recover from it by calling next:

this.app.get("/error", (request, response, next) => {
  setTimeout(() => {
    try {
      throw new Error("shouldn't stop");
    } catch (err) {
      next(err);
    }
  }, 0);
});

This will let express do its duty to response with a 500 error.

Answer 3

Use try/catch/finally.

app.get('/hang', function(req, res, next) {
    console.log("In /hang route");
    setTimeout(function() {
        console.log("In /hang callback");
        try {
            if(reqNum >= 3)
                throw new Error("Problem occurred");
        } catch (err) {
            console.log("There was an error", err);
        } finally {
            res.send("It worked!");
        }
    }, 2000);
});