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child_process: add public API to unref ipc channel #9313
Description
- Version: all
- Platform: n/a
- Subsystem: child_process
It would be nice to have a public API to unref() a child process's ipc channel. My use case for this is that I spawn a child process, send some messages back and forth via ipc, then at some point I want to detach the child process. child.unref() is not enough because that only unrefs the C++ ProcessWrap handle. Currently I have to resort to also doing child._channel.unref(). I am not sure if this should be done automatically inside child.unref() or if there should be a separate function or similar.
Activity
sam-github commentedon Oct 27, 2016
I've unrefed _channel, too, for similar reasons, and other reasons.
I'm not sure
._channelshould be quietly unrefed when you unref the ChildProcess. It seems inconsistent to me, becausechild#unref()doesn't unref the other pipes, like stdout, stderr, or even pipes on descriptors higher than2.I'd prefer for
.channelto just be documented as a property that comes into existence when 'ipc' is in thestdio:options, as.stdoutand the others are. This would mean changing the name of_channel, aliasing its name so both names exist, or just documenting_channel. I'd prefer aliasing in v7, deprecating in v8, and removing in v9.cjihrig commentedon Oct 27, 2016
I like that idea. I've opened #9322 as a potential starting point.
child_process: add public API for IPC channel
child_process: add public API for IPC channel
child_process: create proper public API for `channel`
child_process: create proper public API for `channel`
child_process: create proper public API for `channel`