child_process.execFile slow to exit

Question

I have a Node script that calls an external program (PluginManager.exe) this way:

const util = require('util');
const execFile = util.promisify(require('child_process').execFile);

const process = execFile('PluginManager.exe', ['/install']);
process
  .then(({stdout, stderr}) => console.log('done', stdout, stderr))
  .catch(e => console.log(e));

PluginManager.exe takes 8 seconds to execute. My problem is that the Node script keeps running for another 10 more seconds after the child process has exited. I know when PluginManager.exe finishes because I can see it disappear from the Windows Task Manager Process List.

What keeps the Node process running for so long and what can I do to make sure it exits as soon as the child process exits?

Can you try with `execFile('PluginManager.exe', ['/install'], {shell: true})` and see if it helps? — Tarun Lalwani, Apr 07 '18 at 04:54
@TarunLalwani thanks for the suggestion but I get the same result. — Sylvain, Apr 09 '18 at 15:37
See if using `spawn` helps? https://stackoverflow.com/questions/10232192/exec-display-stdout-live — Tarun Lalwani, Apr 09 '18 at 15:52
Does any spawned process have this issue? Is it any exe? It'll be hard to offer a solution if we cannot duplicate it. — Kevin Peno, Apr 12 '18 at 21:56
@KevinPeno, Yes it is an `exe`. Interestingly, it doesn't do it with all `exe`s! I'll do more testing to find a pattern and identify which _kind_ of exe cause that. Thanks for your comment. — Sylvain, Apr 13 '18 at 12:22

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 13 '18 at 16:42

Maybe it's waiting on input and timing out after 10s?

Try closing stdin with .end() as mentioned in https://nodejs.org/api/child_process.html#child_process_subprocess_stdin

(in this usage, you'll need the original return value of execFile, so don't promisify, as per https://stackoverflow.com/a/30883005/1105015)

e.g.

const util = require('util');
const execFile = require('child_process').execFile;

const process = execFile(
  'PluginManager.exe', ['/install'], (e, stdout, stderr) => {
    if (e) {
      console.log(e);
    } else {
      console.log('done', stdout, stderr));
    }});
process.stdin.end();

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 13 '18 at 16:10

0

Have you tried by adding the killSignal option set to something a bit more aggresive?

const process = execFile('PluginManager.exe', ['/install'], {killSignal: 'SIGKILL'});

answered Apr 13 '18 at 16:10

QuarK

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child_process.execFile slow to exit

2 Answers2