doc: discourage AbortSignal cleanup for long-lived resources

Signed-off-by: Efe Karasakal <hi@efe.dev>
PR-URL: #64342
Reviewed-By: Matteo Collina <matteo.collina@gmail.com>
Reviewed-By: Trivikram Kamat <trivikr.dev@gmail.com>

Author: efekrskl

doc/api/child_process.md

@@ -242,6 +242,11 @@ can be used to specify the character encoding used to decode the stdout and
 stderr output. If `encoding` is `'buffer'`, or an unrecognized character
 encoding, `Buffer` objects will be passed to the callback instead.
 
+> Using the `signal` option to destroy a long-lived child process as a resource
+> cleanup mechanism is deprecated. The `signal` option remains appropriate for
+> cancellation, externally propagated aborts, and timeouts. See
+> [DEP0209](deprecations.md#dep0209-using-abortsignal-to-dispose-of-resources).
+
 ```cjs
 const { exec } = require('node:child_process');
 exec('cat *.js missing_file | wc -l', (error, stdout, stderr) => {
@@ -390,6 +395,11 @@ except that it does not spawn a shell by default. Rather, the specified
 executable `file` is spawned directly as a new process making it slightly more
 efficient than [`child_process.exec()`][].
 
+> Using the `signal` option to destroy a long-lived child process as a resource
+> cleanup mechanism is deprecated. The `signal` option remains appropriate for
+> cancellation, externally propagated aborts, and timeouts. See
+> [DEP0209](deprecations.md#dep0209-using-abortsignal-to-dispose-of-resources).
+
 The same options as [`child_process.exec()`][] are supported. Since a shell is
 not spawned, behaviors such as I/O redirection and file globbing are not
 supported.
@@ -585,6 +595,11 @@ current process.
 The `shell` option available in [`child_process.spawn()`][] is not supported by
 `child_process.fork()` and will be ignored if set.
 
+> Using the `signal` option to destroy a long-lived child process as a resource
+> cleanup mechanism is deprecated. The `signal` option remains appropriate for
+> cancellation, externally propagated aborts, and timeouts. See
+> [DEP0209](deprecations.md#dep0209-using-abortsignal-to-dispose-of-resources).
+
 If the `signal` option is enabled, calling `.abort()` on the corresponding
 `AbortController` is similar to calling `.kill()` on the child process except
 the error passed to the callback will be an `AbortError`:
@@ -735,6 +750,11 @@ process, the default is [`process.env`][].
 
 `undefined` values in `env` will be ignored.
 
+> Using the `signal` option to destroy a long-lived child process as a resource
+> cleanup mechanism is deprecated. The `signal` option remains appropriate for
+> cancellation, externally propagated aborts, and timeouts. See
+> [DEP0209](deprecations.md#dep0209-using-abortsignal-to-dispose-of-resources).
+
 Example of running `ls -lh /usr`, capturing `stdout`, `stderr`, and the
 exit code:
 

doc/api/deprecations.md

@@ -4522,6 +4522,85 @@ replacing it keeps being called by [`server.listen()`][], and it will be
 removed in a future version of Node.js. Use [`server.listen()`][] instead of
 calling or overriding `_listen2`.
 
+### DEP0209: Using `AbortSignal` to dispose of resources
+
+<!-- YAML
+changes:
+  - version: REPLACEME
+    pr-url: https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/64342
+    description: Documentation-only deprecation.
+-->
+
+Type: Documentation-only
+
+Using `AbortSignal` to destroy long-lived resources is deprecated. Prefer
+`using` for resource cleanup.
+
+`AbortSignal` is still a good fit for canceling actions, propagating
+cancellation from the outside, and timeouts.
+
+```js
+// Deprecated
+async function example() {
+  const ac = new AbortController();
+  const server = http.createServer(handler);
+  server.listen({ port: 3000, signal: ac.signal });
+
+  await doWork();
+  ac.abort();
+}
+```
+
+```js
+// Use this instead
+async function example() {
+  await using server = http.createServer(handler);
+  server.listen(3000);
+
+  await doWork();
+}
+```
+
+```js
+// Deprecated
+async function example() {
+  const ac = new AbortController();
+  const stream = addAbortSignal(ac.signal, fs.createReadStream(file));
+
+  await consume(stream);
+  ac.abort();
+}
+```
+
+```js
+// Use this instead
+async function example() {
+  await using stream = fs.createReadStream(file);
+
+  await consume(stream);
+}
+```
+
+```js
+// Deprecated
+async function example() {
+  const ac = new AbortController();
+  const child = spawn(command, args, { signal: ac.signal });
+
+  await doWork();
+  ac.abort();
+}
+```
+
+```js
+// Use this instead
+async function example() {
+  using child = spawn(command, args);
+
+  await doWork();
+}
+```
+
 [DEP0142]: #dep0142-repl_builtinlibs
 [NIST SP 800-38D]: https://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/Legacy/SP/nistspecialpublication800-38d.pdf
 [RFC 6066]: https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6066#section-3

doc/api/net.md

@@ -739,6 +739,11 @@ Otherwise, if `path` is specified, it behaves the same as
 [`server.listen(path[, backlog][, callback])`][`server.listen(path)`].
 If none of them is specified, an error will be thrown.
 
+> Using the `signal` option to destroy a long-lived server as a resource cleanup
+> mechanism is deprecated. The `signal` option remains appropriate for
+> cancellation, externally propagated aborts, and timeouts. See
+> [DEP0209](deprecations.md#dep0209-using-abortsignal-to-dispose-of-resources).
+
 If `exclusive` is `false` (default), then cluster workers will use the same
 underlying handle, allowing connection handling duties to be shared. When
 `exclusive` is `true`, the handle is not shared, and attempted port sharing

doc/api/stream.md

@@ -3531,6 +3531,10 @@ changes:
                  `WritableStream`.
 -->
 
+> Stability: 0 - Deprecated. Using [`stream.addAbortSignal()`][] to destroy
+> long-lived stream resources is documentation-only deprecated. See
+> [DEP0209](deprecations.md#dep0209-using-abortsignal-to-dispose-of-resources).
+
 * `signal` {AbortSignal} A signal representing possible cancellation
 * `stream` {Stream|ReadableStream|WritableStream} A stream to attach a signal
   to.