Do zombies exist ... in javascript?

Question

After reading this question: Do zombies exist ... in .NET? I started to wonder if there is any chance of a zombie process to happen in a javascript code?

Intentional Example:

var f = function(){if(!window) alert('Wont ever happen')};
setInterval(f, 4);

note that `window` is not necessarily the name of the 'top level object' . for instance in Node.js it is named `global` — Pac0, Nov 19 '18 at 16:30
https://www.arbazsiddiqui.me/a-practical-guide-to-memory-leaks-in-nodejs/ — rafaelcastrocouto, Apr 16 '20 at 13:41

score 5 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 19 '13 at 13:43

Javascript is a singlethreaded language which generally only uses local variables if developed properly. It cannot refer to external resources in the same way as .Net does, because it's sandboxed inside the browser. It cannot call local files on its own, and only downloads copies of remote files. There is a filesystem API, but this is also sandboxed. And the Filereader API itself can only handle blobs (i.e. copies of files, not references to files or the files themselves). As such, barring future development in Filesystem access for Javascript, zombie threads aren't really an issue in Javascript.

Do zombies exist ... in javascript?

1 Answers1