Node.js command line script sometimes does not terminate

Question

I have a node js script with an async main method. Sometimes the script terminates fine, other times it hangs.

const main = async () => {
    let updates = []
    // ... add a bunch of promises to updates
    await Promise.all(updates)
} 

main()

Does anyone know why this script sometimes might hang? It just doesn't terminate though it appears to have run to completion.

It's impossible to be certain based on what you provide here, but generally this happens if you fail to resolve or reject all your promises and/or don't call `process.exit()` appropriately. — Paul, Oct 17 '18 at 18:34
Yes this happens to me a lot--your async function inherently returns a promise even though nothing is explicitly returned. So if you add `main().then(() => process.exit())` it should always terminate. — axanpi, Oct 17 '18 at 19:17

score 8 · Answer 1 · answered Nov 24 '20 at 11:47

8

Because your function is async, you need to explicitly terminate it when it finishes:

main().then(() => process.exit())

answered Nov 24 '20 at 11:47

Todd Chaffee

1 Answers1