CODEWITHSUNDEEP
node.jswinapiprocesssignals
Nick Sotiros
Nick Sotiros

Reputation: 2310

Why can I not kill my child process in nodejs on windows?

exec = require('child_process').exec;

child = exec('node child.js');
child.stdout.pipe(process.stdout);
child.kill('SIGKILL');

function wait() {
    setTimeout(wait, 1000);
    child.kill('SIGKILL');
}
wait();

The above code does not work. The child starts and will continue to write output indefinitely. I can not figure out how to kill this child process. I am running node v0.11.9 in Windows 7. I know that Windows does not use POSIX signals but sending it 'WM_QUIT' results in an exception. Is my best solution to setup an event protocol on stdin?

Upvotes: 28

Views: 25729

Answers (7)

Krishan Pal
Krishan Pal

Reputation: 406

To kill it manually, use below command on mac/linux:

lsof -i tcp:<PORT>

e.g.

lsof -i tcp:3000

Then it will list processes you supposed to kill:

COMMAND     PID       USER   FD   TYPE             DEVICE SIZE/OFF NODE NAME
Electron  34931 krishanpal   26u  IPv6 0x36170510593791ba      0t0  TCP *:pxc-splr (LISTEN)

Use the PID and hit kill port command as below:

kill -9 <PID>

e.g.

kill -9 34931

Upvotes: 0

zhangkun
zhangkun

Reputation: 51

There is no problem under macOS. Under Windows, kill only exits the process and cannot close it. Under Windows, you need to manually destroy it.

const cp = require('child_process').spawn('your code')

// add this code
cp.stdout.destroy()
cp.stdin.destroy()
cp.stderr.destroy()
cp.kill()

Upvotes: 2

ChesuCR
ChesuCR

Reputation: 9630

Just an update

Now this code works (tested with Node.js 8.9.3 and Windows 10):

spawn = require('child_process').spawn;
child = spawn('node', ['child.js']);

setTimeout(function() {
    child.kill();
    }, 5000
);

Upvotes: 5

Adam Johns
Adam Johns

Reputation: 36353

I had to use the following package to kill my child process:

https://www.npmjs.com/package/tree-kill

The regular .kill command wouldn't work for me either on a raspberry pi.

Upvotes: 11

Ankit Yadav
Ankit Yadav

Reputation: 1

check this code it worked for me.


    var killer = require('child_process');

    killer=exec('taskkill /F /pid '+child.pid);


Here killer is a variable and child is your child process. when you create a child process it has many attributes associated with it and pid is one of them. for more details on child process attributes and function check this node.js child process.

This program is to kill child process in windows environment.

Upvotes: 0

Leigh Nathan Beattie
Leigh Nathan Beattie

Reputation: 684

This still doesn't work for me with the current accepted answer. A work around on windows you can use is to call upon the windows taskkill program to kill the child process for you. Not quite as nice but it works. When you spawn the child you get a ProcessID (pid) stored in the child object returned when spawning, you can use with taskkill to kill the process.

var spawn = require('child_process').spawn;    
spawn("taskkill", ["/pid", child.pid, '/f', '/t']);

Upvotes: 56

SomeKittens
SomeKittens

Reputation: 39532

If you want to be able to kill child processes via SIGKILL, use spawn instead, as spawn will create a child process (instead of a new shell like exec:

var exec = require('child_process').spawn;

Alternatively, you could pass the timeout parameter to exec, which will kill the process after that many milliseconds.

child = exec('node child.js', { timeout: 1000 });

Upvotes: 7

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