Node.js v24.2.0 documentation

Event: 'close'#

The 'close' event is emitted when the stream and any of its underlying resources (a file descriptor, for example) have been closed. The event indicates that no more events will be emitted, and no further computation will occur.

A Writable stream will always emit the 'close' event if it is created with the emitClose option.

Event: 'drain'#

If a call to stream.write(chunk) returns false, the 'drain' event will be emitted when it is appropriate to resume writing data to the stream.

// Write the data to the supplied writable stream one million times.
// Be attentive to back-pressure.
function writeOneMillionTimes(writer, data, encoding, callback) {
  let i = 1000000;
  write();
  function write() {
    let ok = true;
    do {
      i--;
      if (i === 0) {
        // Last time!
        writer.write(data, encoding, callback);
      } else {
        // See if we should continue, or wait.
        // Don't pass the callback, because we're not done yet.
        ok = writer.write(data, encoding);
      }
    } while (i > 0 && ok);
    if (i > 0) {
      // Had to stop early!
      // Write some more once it drains.
      writer.once('drain', write);
    }
  }
} copy

Event: 'error'#

The 'error' event is emitted if an error occurred while writing or piping data. The listener callback is passed a single Error argument when called.

The stream is closed when the 'error' event is emitted unless the autoDestroy option was set to false when creating the stream.

After 'error', no further events other than 'close' should be emitted (including 'error' events).

Event: 'finish'#

The 'finish' event is emitted after the stream.end() method has been called, and all data has been flushed to the underlying system.

const writer = getWritableStreamSomehow();
for (let i = 0; i < 100; i++) {
  writer.write(`hello, #${i}!\n`);
}
writer.on('finish', () => {
  console.log('All writes are now complete.');
});
writer.end('This is the end\n'); copy

Event: 'pipe'#

• src source stream that is piping to this writable

The 'pipe' event is emitted when the stream.pipe() method is called on a readable stream, adding this writable to its set of destinations.

const writer = getWritableStreamSomehow();
const reader = getReadableStreamSomehow();
writer.on('pipe', (src) => {
  console.log('Something is piping into the writer.');
  assert.equal(src, reader);
});
reader.pipe(writer); copy

Event: 'unpipe'#

• src The source stream that unpiped this writable

The 'unpipe' event is emitted when the stream.unpipe() method is called on a Readable stream, removing this Writable from its set of destinations.

This is also emitted in case this Writable stream emits an error when a Readable stream pipes into it.

const writer = getWritableStreamSomehow();
const reader = getReadableStreamSomehow();
writer.on('unpipe', (src) => {
  console.log('Something has stopped piping into the writer.');
  assert.equal(src, reader);
});
reader.pipe(writer);
reader.unpipe(writer); copy

writable.cork()#

The writable.cork() method forces all written data to be buffered in memory. The buffered data will be flushed when either the stream.uncork() or stream.end() methods are called.

The primary intent of writable.cork() is to accommodate a situation in which several small chunks are written to the stream in rapid succession. Instead of immediately forwarding them to the underlying destination, writable.cork() buffers all the chunks until writable.uncork() is called, which will pass them all to writable._writev(), if present. This prevents a head-of-line blocking situation where data is being buffered while waiting for the first small chunk to be processed. However, use of writable.cork() without implementing writable._writev() may have an adverse effect on throughput.

See also: writable.uncork(), writable._writev().

writable.destroy([error])#

• error Optional, an error to emit with 'error' event.
• Returns:

Destroy the stream. Optionally emit an 'error' event, and emit a 'close' event (unless emitClose is set to false). After this call, the writable stream has ended and subsequent calls to write() or end() will result in an ERR_STREAM_DESTROYED error. This is a destructive and immediate way to destroy a stream. Previous calls to write() may not have drained, and may trigger an ERR_STREAM_DESTROYED error. Use end() instead of destroy if data should flush before close, or wait for the 'drain' event before destroying the stream.

const { Writable } = require('node:stream');

const myStream = new Writable();

const fooErr = new Error('foo error');
myStream.destroy(fooErr);
myStream.on('error', (fooErr) => console.error(fooErr.message)); // foo error copy

const { Writable } = require('node:stream');

const myStream = new Writable();

myStream.destroy();
myStream.on('error', function wontHappen() {}); copy

const { Writable } = require('node:stream');

const myStream = new Writable();
myStream.destroy();

myStream.write('foo', (error) => console.error(error.code));
// ERR_STREAM_DESTROYED copy

Once destroy() has been called any further calls will be a no-op and no further errors except from _destroy() may be emitted as 'error'.

Implementors should not override this method, but instead implement writable._destroy().

writable.closed#

Is true after 'close' has been emitted.

writable.destroyed#

Is true after writable.destroy() has been called.

const { Writable } = require('node:stream');

const myStream = new Writable();

console.log(myStream.destroyed); // false
myStream.destroy();
console.log(myStream.destroyed); // true copy

writable.end([chunk[, encoding]][, callback])#

• chunk | | | | Optional data to write. For streams not operating in object mode, chunk must be a , , or . For object mode streams, chunk may be any JavaScript value other than null.
• encoding The encoding if chunk is a string
• callback Callback for when the stream is finished.
• Returns:

Calling the writable.end() method signals that no more data will be written to the Writable. The optional chunk and encoding arguments allow one final additional chunk of data to be written immediately before closing the stream.

Calling the stream.write() method after calling stream.end() will raise an error.

// Write 'hello, ' and then end with 'world!'.
const fs = require('node:fs');
const file = fs.createWriteStream('example.txt');
file.write('hello, ');
file.end('world!');
// Writing more now is not allowed! copy

writable.setDefaultEncoding(encoding)#

• encoding The new default encoding
• Returns:

The writable.setDefaultEncoding() method sets the default encoding for a Writable stream.

writable.uncork()#

The writable.uncork() method flushes all data buffered since stream.cork() was called.

When using writable.cork() and writable.uncork() to manage the buffering of writes to a stream, defer calls to writable.uncork() using process.nextTick(). Doing so allows batching of all writable.write() calls that occur within a given Node.js event loop phase.

stream.cork();
stream.write('some ');
stream.write('data ');
process.nextTick(() => stream.uncork()); copy

If the writable.cork() method is called multiple times on a stream, the same number of calls to writable.uncork() must be called to flush the buffered data.

stream.cork();
stream.write('some ');
stream.cork();
stream.write('data ');
process.nextTick(() => {
  stream.uncork();
  // The data will not be flushed until uncork() is called a second time.
  stream.uncork();
}); copy

See also: writable.cork().

writable.writable#

Is true if it is safe to call writable.write(), which means the stream has not been destroyed, errored, or ended.

writable.writableAborted#

Returns whether the stream was destroyed or errored before emitting 'finish'.

writable.writableEnded#

Is true after writable.end() has been called. This property does not indicate whether the data has been flushed, for this use writable.writableFinished instead.

writable.writableCorked#

Number of times writable.uncork() needs to be called in order to fully uncork the stream.

writable.errored#

Returns error if the stream has been destroyed with an error.

writable.writableFinished#

Is set to true immediately before the 'finish' event is emitted.

writable.writableHighWaterMark#

Return the value of highWaterMark passed when creating this Writable.

writable.writableLength#

This property contains the number of bytes (or objects) in the queue ready to be written. The value provides introspection data regarding the status of the highWaterMark.

writable.writableNeedDrain#

Is true if the stream's buffer has been full and stream will emit 'drain'.

writable.writableObjectMode#

Getter for the property objectMode of a given Writable stream.

writable[Symbol.asyncDispose]()#

Calls writable.destroy() with an AbortError and returns a promise that fulfills when the stream is finished.

writable.write(chunk[, encoding][, callback])#

• chunk | | | | Optional data to write. For streams not operating in object mode, chunk must be a , , or . For object mode streams, chunk may be any JavaScript value other than null.
• encoding | The encoding, if chunk is a string. Default: 'utf8'
• callback Callback for when this chunk of data is flushed.
• Returns: false if the stream wishes for the calling code to wait for the 'drain' event to be emitted before continuing to write additional data; otherwise true.

The writable.write() method writes some data to the stream, and calls the supplied callback once the data has been fully handled. If an error occurs, the callback will be called with the error as its first argument. The callback is called asynchronously and before 'error' is emitted.

The return value is true if the internal buffer is less than the highWaterMark configured when the stream was created after admitting chunk. If false is returned, further attempts to write data to the stream should stop until the 'drain' event is emitted.

While a stream is not draining, calls to write() will buffer chunk, and return false. Once all currently buffered chunks are drained (accepted for delivery by the operating system), the 'drain' event will be emitted. Once write() returns false, do not write more chunks until the 'drain' event is emitted. While calling write() on a stream that is not draining is allowed, Node.js will buffer all written chunks until maximum memory usage occurs, at which point it will abort unconditionally. Even before it aborts, high memory usage will cause poor garbage collector performance and high RSS (which is not typically released back to the system, even after the memory is no longer required). Since TCP sockets may never drain if the remote peer does not read the data, writing a socket that is not draining may lead to a remotely exploitable vulnerability.

Writing data while the stream is not draining is particularly problematic for a Transform, because the Transform streams are paused by default until they are piped or a 'data' or 'readable' event handler is added.

If the data to be written can be generated or fetched on demand, it is recommended to encapsulate the logic into a Readable and use stream.pipe(). However, if calling write() is preferred, it is possible to respect backpressure and avoid memory issues using the 'drain' event:

function write(data, cb) {
  if (!stream.write(data)) {
    stream.once('drain', cb);
  } else {
    process.nextTick(cb);
  }
}

// Wait for cb to be called before doing any other write.
write('hello', () => {
  console.log('Write completed, do more writes now.');
}); copy

A Writable stream in object mode will always ignore the encoding argument.

Event: 'close'#

The 'close' event is emitted when the stream and any of its underlying resources (a file descriptor, for example) have been closed. The event indicates that no more events will be emitted, and no further computation will occur.

A Readable stream will always emit the 'close' event if it is created with the emitClose option.

Event: 'data'#

• chunk | | The chunk of data. For streams that are not operating in object mode, the chunk will be either a string or Buffer. For streams that are in object mode, the chunk can be any JavaScript value other than null.

The 'data' event is emitted whenever the stream is relinquishing ownership of a chunk of data to a consumer. This may occur whenever the stream is switched in flowing mode by calling readable.pipe(), readable.resume(), or by attaching a listener callback to the 'data' event. The 'data' event will also be emitted whenever the readable.read() method is called and a chunk of data is available to be returned.

Attaching a 'data' event listener to a stream that has not been explicitly paused will switch the stream into flowing mode. Data will then be passed as soon as it is available.

The listener callback will be passed the chunk of data as a string if a default encoding has been specified for the stream using the readable.setEncoding() method; otherwise the data will be passed as a Buffer.

const readable = getReadableStreamSomehow();
readable.on('data', (chunk) => {
  console.log(`Received ${chunk.length} bytes of data.`);
}); copy

Event: 'end'#

The 'end' event is emitted when there is no more data to be consumed from the stream.

The 'end' event will not be emitted unless the data is completely consumed. This can be accomplished by switching the stream into flowing mode, or by calling stream.read() repeatedly until all data has been consumed.

const readable = getReadableStreamSomehow();
readable.on('data', (chunk) => {
  console.log(`Received ${chunk.length} bytes of data.`);
});
readable.on('end', () => {
  console.log('There will be no more data.');
}); copy

Event: 'error'#

The 'error' event may be emitted by a Readable implementation at any time. Typically, this may occur if the underlying stream is unable to generate data due to an underlying internal failure, or when a stream implementation attempts to push an invalid chunk of data.

The listener callback will be passed a single Error object.

Event: 'pause'#

The 'pause' event is emitted when stream.pause() is called and readableFlowing is not false.

Event: 'readable'#

The 'readable' event is emitted when there is data available to be read from the stream, up to the configured high water mark (state.highWaterMark). Effectively, it indicates that the stream has new information within the buffer. If data is available within this buffer, stream.read() can be called to retrieve that data. Additionally, the 'readable' event may also be emitted when the end of the stream has been reached.

const readable = getReadableStreamSomehow();
readable.on('readable', function() {
  // There is some data to read now.
  let data;

  while ((data = this.read()) !== null) {
    console.log(data);
  }
}); copy

If the end of the stream has been reached, calling stream.read() will return null and trigger the 'end' event. This is also true if there never was any data to be read. For instance, in the following example, foo.txt is an empty file:

const fs = require('node:fs');
const rr = fs.createReadStream('foo.txt');
rr.on('readable', () => {
  console.log(`readable: ${rr.read()}`);
});
rr.on('end', () => {
  console.log('end');
}); copy

The output of running this script is:

$ node test.js
readable: null
end copy

In some cases, attaching a listener for the 'readable' event will cause some amount of data to be read into an internal buffer.

In general, the readable.pipe() and 'data' event mechanisms are easier to understand than the 'readable' event. However, handling 'readable' might result in increased throughput.

If both 'readable' and 'data' are used at the same time, 'readable' takes precedence in controlling the flow, i.e. 'data' will be emitted only when stream.read() is called. The readableFlowing property would become false. If there are 'data' listeners when 'readable' is removed, the stream will start flowing, i.e. 'data' events will be emitted without calling .resume().

Event: 'resume'#

The 'resume' event is emitted when stream.resume() is called and readableFlowing is not true.

readable.destroy([error])#

• error Error which will be passed as payload in 'error' event
• Returns:

Destroy the stream. Optionally emit an 'error' event, and emit a 'close' event (unless emitClose is set to false). After this call, the readable stream will release any internal resources and subsequent calls to push() will be ignored.

Once destroy() has been called any further calls will be a no-op and no further errors except from _destroy() may be emitted as 'error'.

Implementors should not override this method, but instead implement readable._destroy().

readable.closed#

Is true after 'close' has been emitted.

readable.destroyed#

Is true after readable.destroy() has been called.

readable.isPaused()#

• Returns:

The readable.isPaused() method returns the current operating state of the Readable. This is used primarily by the mechanism that underlies the readable.pipe() method. In most typical cases, there will be no reason to use this method directly.

const readable = new stream.Readable();

readable.isPaused(); // === false
readable.pause();
readable.isPaused(); // === true
readable.resume();
readable.isPaused(); // === false copy

readable.pause()#

• Returns:

The readable.pause() method will cause a stream in flowing mode to stop emitting 'data' events, switching out of flowing mode. Any data that becomes available will remain in the internal buffer.

const readable = getReadableStreamSomehow();
readable.on('data', (chunk) => {
  console.log(`Received ${chunk.length} bytes of data.`);
  readable.pause();
  console.log('There will be no additional data for 1 second.');
  setTimeout(() => {
    console.log('Now data will start flowing again.');
    readable.resume();
  }, 1000);
}); copy

The readable.pause() method has no effect if there is a 'readable' event listener.

readable.pipe(destination[, options])#

• destination The destination for writing data
• options