Node.js v21.7.3 documentation

Terminology#

An asynchronous resource represents an object with an associated callback. This callback may be called multiple times, such as the 'connection' event in net.createServer(), or just a single time like in fs.open(). A resource can also be closed before the callback is called. AsyncHook does not explicitly distinguish between these different cases but will represent them as the abstract concept that is a resource.

If Workers are used, each thread has an independent async_hooks interface, and each thread will use a new set of async IDs.

Overview#

Following is a simple overview of the public API.

import async_hooks from 'node:async_hooks';

// Return the ID of the current execution context.
const eid = async_hooks.executionAsyncId();

// Return the ID of the handle responsible for triggering the callback of the
// current execution scope to call.
const tid = async_hooks.triggerAsyncId();

// Create a new AsyncHook instance. All of these callbacks are optional.
const asyncHook =
    async_hooks.createHook({ init, before, after, destroy, promiseResolve });

// Allow callbacks of this AsyncHook instance to call. This is not an implicit
// action after running the constructor, and must be explicitly run to begin
// executing callbacks.
asyncHook.enable();

// Disable listening for new asynchronous events.
asyncHook.disable();

//
// The following are the callbacks that can be passed to createHook().
//

// init() is called during object construction. The resource may not have
// completed construction when this callback runs. Therefore, all fields of the
// resource referenced by "asyncId" may not have been populated.
function init(asyncId, type, triggerAsyncId, resource) { }

// before() is called just before the resource's callback is called. It can be
// called 0-N times for handles (such as TCPWrap), and will be called exactly 1
// time for requests (such as FSReqCallback).
function before(asyncId) { }

// after() is called just after the resource's callback has finished.
function after(asyncId) { }

// destroy() is called when the resource is destroyed.
function destroy(asyncId) { }

// promiseResolve() is called only for promise resources, when the
// resolve() function passed to the Promise constructor is invoked
// (either directly or through other means of resolving a promise).
function promiseResolve(asyncId) { }const async_hooks = require('node:async_hooks');

// Return the ID of the current execution context.
const eid = async_hooks.executionAsyncId();

// Return the ID of the handle responsible for triggering the callback of the
// current execution scope to call.
const tid = async_hooks.triggerAsyncId();

// Create a new AsyncHook instance. All of these callbacks are optional.
const asyncHook =
    async_hooks.createHook({ init, before, after, destroy, promiseResolve });

// Allow callbacks of this AsyncHook instance to call. This is not an implicit
// action after running the constructor, and must be explicitly run to begin
// executing callbacks.
asyncHook.enable();

// Disable listening for new asynchronous events.
asyncHook.disable();

//
// The following are the callbacks that can be passed to createHook().
//

// init() is called during object construction. The resource may not have
// completed construction when this callback runs. Therefore, all fields of the
// resource referenced by "asyncId" may not have been populated.
function init(asyncId, type, triggerAsyncId, resource) { }

// before() is called just before the resource's callback is called. It can be
// called 0-N times for handles (such as TCPWrap), and will be called exactly 1
// time for requests (such as FSReqCallback).
function before(asyncId) { }

// after() is called just after the resource's callback has finished.
function after(asyncId) { }

// destroy() is called when the resource is destroyed.
function destroy(asyncId) { }

// promiseResolve() is called only for promise resources, when the
// resolve() function passed to the Promise constructor is invoked
// (either directly or through other means of resolving a promise).
function promiseResolve(asyncId) { }copy

async_hooks.createHook(callbacks)#

• callbacks <Object> The Hook Callbacks to register
  • init <Function> The init callback.
  • before <Function> The before callback.
  • after <Function> The after callback.
  • destroy <Function> The destroy callback.
  • promiseResolve <Function> The promiseResolve callback.
• Returns: <AsyncHook> Instance used for disabling and enabling hooks

Registers functions to be called for different lifetime events of each async operation.

The callbacks init()/before()/after()/destroy() are called for the respective asynchronous event during a resource's lifetime.

All callbacks are optional. For example, if only resource cleanup needs to be tracked, then only the destroy callback needs to be passed. The specifics of all functions that can be passed to callbacks is in the Hook Callbacks section.

import { createHook } from 'node:async_hooks';

const asyncHook = createHook({
  init(asyncId, type, triggerAsyncId, resource) { },
  destroy(asyncId) { },
});const async_hooks = require('node:async_hooks');

const asyncHook = async_hooks.createHook({
  init(asyncId, type, triggerAsyncId, resource) { },
  destroy(asyncId) { },
});copy

The callbacks will be inherited via the prototype chain:

class MyAsyncCallbacks {
  init(asyncId, type, triggerAsyncId, resource) { }
  destroy(asyncId) {}
}

class MyAddedCallbacks extends MyAsyncCallbacks {
  before(asyncId) { }
  after(asyncId) { }
}

const asyncHook = async_hooks.createHook(new MyAddedCallbacks()); copy

Because promises are asynchronous resources whose lifecycle is tracked via the async hooks mechanism, the init(), before(), after(), and destroy() callbacks must not be async functions that return promises.

Error handling#

If any AsyncHook callbacks throw, the application will print the stack trace and exit. The exit path does follow that of an uncaught exception, but all 'uncaughtException' listeners are removed, thus forcing the process to exit. The 'exit' callbacks will still be called unless the application is run with --abort-on-uncaught-exception, in which case a stack trace will be printed and the application exits, leaving a core file.

The reason for this error handling behavior is that these callbacks are running at potentially volatile points in an object's lifetime, for example during class construction and destruction. Because of this, it is deemed necessary to bring down the process quickly in order to prevent an unintentional abort in the future. This is subject to change in the future if a comprehensive analysis is performed to ensure an exception can follow the normal control flow without unintentional side effects.

Printing in AsyncHook callbacks#

Because printing to the console is an asynchronous operation, console.log() will cause AsyncHook callbacks to be called. Using console.log() or similar asynchronous operations inside an AsyncHook callback function will cause an infinite recursion. An easy solution to this when debugging is to use a synchronous logging operation such as fs.writeFileSync(file, msg, flag). This will print to the file and will not invoke AsyncHook recursively because it is synchronous.

import { writeFileSync } from 'node:fs';
import { format } from 'node:util';

function debug(...args) {
  // Use a function like this one when debugging inside an AsyncHook callback
  writeFileSync('log.out', `${format(...args)}\n`, { flag: 'a' });
}const fs = require('node:fs');
const util = require('node:util');

function debug(...args) {
  // Use a function like this one when debugging inside an AsyncHook callback
  fs.writeFileSync('log.out', `${util.format(...args)}\n`, { flag: 'a' });
}copy

If an asynchronous operation is needed for logging, it is possible to keep track of what caused the asynchronous operation using the information provided by AsyncHook itself. The logging should then be skipped when it was the logging itself that caused the AsyncHook callback to be called. By doing this, the otherwise infinite recursion is broken.

Class: AsyncHook#

The class AsyncHook exposes an interface for tracking lifetime events of asynchronous operations.

asyncHook.enable()#

• Returns: <AsyncHook> A reference to asyncHook.

Enable the callbacks for a given AsyncHook instance. If no callbacks are provided, enabling is a no-op.

The AsyncHook instance is disabled by default. If the AsyncHook instance should be enabled immediately after creation, the following pattern can be used.

import { createHook } from 'node:async_hooks';

const hook = createHook(callbacks).enable();const async_hooks = require('node:async_hooks');

const hook = async_hooks.createHook(callbacks).enable();copy

asyncHook.disable()#

• Returns: <AsyncHook> A reference to asyncHook.

Disable the callbacks for a given AsyncHook instance from the global pool of AsyncHook callbacks to be executed. Once a hook has been disabled it will not be called again until enabled.

For API consistency disable() also returns the AsyncHook instance.

Hook callbacks#