# terminate
**Repository Path**: mirrors_dwyl/terminate
## Basic Information
- **Project Name**: terminate
- **Description**: :recycle: Terminate a Node.js Process (and all Child Processes) based on the Process ID
- **Primary Language**: Unknown
- **License**: GPL-2.0
- **Default Branch**: main
- **Homepage**: None
- **GVP Project**: No
## Statistics
- **Stars**: 0
- **Forks**: 0
- **Created**: 2020-08-08
- **Last Updated**: 2026-01-17
## Categories & Tags
**Categories**: Uncategorized
**Tags**: None
## README
# `terminate`
A minimalist yet *reliable* way to **Terminate** a **`Node.js Process`** (and ***all Child Processes***) by **Process ID**.
[](http://codecov.io/github/dwyl/terminate?branch=main)
[](https://badge.fury.io/js/terminate)
[](https://nodejs.org/download)
[](https://github.com/dwyl/goodparts "JavaScript The Good Parts")
[](http://hits.dwyl.com/dwyl/terminate)
[](https://github.com/dwyl/hapi-auth-jwt2/issues)
## Usage
### Install from NPM
```sh
npm install terminate --save
```
### In your script
```js
const terminate = require('terminate');
terminate(process.pid, function (err) {
if (err) { // you will get an error if you did not supply a valid process.pid
console.log('Oopsy:', err); // handle errors in your preferred way.
}
else {
console.log('done'); // terminating the Processes succeeded.
// NOTE: The above won't be run in this example as the process itself will be killed before.
}
});
```
### Usage
All the available parameters and their descriptions are viewable in the TypeScript definition file: [**`index.d.ts`**](./index.d.ts#L71).
```ts
// Function signature
terminate(pid: number, signal?: string, opts?: TerminateOptions, callback?: DoneCallback): void
// Function signature of the Promise version
terminate(pid: number, signal?: string, opts?: TerminateOptions): Promise
```
- `pid` - The Process ID you want to terminate.
- `signal` - The signal to kill the processes with. Defaults to `"SIGKILL"` if it's empty or not defined.
- `opts.pollInterval` - Interval to poll whether `pid` and all of the childs pids have been killed. Defaults to `500` (0.5s).
- `opts.timeout` - Max time (in milliseconds) to wait for process to exit before timing out and calling back with an error. Defaults to `5000` (5s).
- `callback` - The callback function to call when the termination is done. It has this signature: `(error: Error | null): void` whereas `error` will be `null` if the operation succeeds.
### Promise API
If you are **using Node.js 8+**, you can load the Promise version importing the module `terminate/promise.js` like this:
```js
const terminate = require('terminate/promise');
(async () => {
try {
await terminate(process.pid);
console.log('done');
} catch (err) {
console.log('Oopsy:', err);
}
})();
```
# tl;dr
## Why?
In our [***Faster***](https://github.com/ideaq/faster) project
we run the server using [**Child Process**](https://nodejs.org/api/child_process.html)(es).
When we want to re-start the server,
we needed to ensure the **process** (and any **Child Processes**)
were **Terminate**d before attempting to re-start.
## *Prevents* Zombie Processes
Imagine you are running your Node.js app on a Multi-Core Processor
and don't want to "waste" the CPU by only using *one* of those cores
(remember: one of Node's *selling points* is that its [single-process running on a single-core](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/17959663/)),
you can "farm out" tasks to the other cores using [**Child Process**](https://nodejs.org/api/child_process.html)(es)
If you then want to restart your app you *naively* (we did this!)
terminate the "main" process and *expect* all the "child" processes to
be ended too.
Sadly this results in [***Zombie Processes***](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/27381163)
which you would have to either *manually* kill or restart the machine/VM to clear.
Instead you need to *find* all the Process IDs for the child processes
that your app created and **terminate** those *before* you can re-start your app.
Using ***terminate*** you no longer have this problem.
## Dependencies [](https://retire.insecurity.today/api/image?uri=https://raw.githubusercontent.com/dwyl/terminate/main/package.json)
While researching how to get a list of child processes given a
Process ID we found **ps-tree**: https://github.com/indexzero/ps-tree
it was *un-maintained* and had *no tests*
so we submitted an [***issue***](https://github.com/indexzero/terminate/issues/10)
offering to update the module *with tests*.
[*Charlie*](https://github.com/indexzero/terminate/issues/10#issuecomment-86795133)
replied welcoming an update so we submitted
a [***Pull Request***](https://github.com/indexzero/ps-tree/pull/12)
with ***100% test coverage*** which was [***Merged*** by *Charlie*](https://github.com/indexzero/ps-tree/pull/12#issuecomment-91785753)
ps-tree in turn uses [**event-stream**](https://github.com/dominictarr/event-stream)
(by [Dominc Tarr](https://github.com/dominictarr)) for streaming the result
of its process lookups.
**event-stream** does not publish its' code coverage,
but is tested (and *more importantly* ***used*** by millions of people)
has had ***many itterations*** and has been ***stable*** for a while:
[](https://nodei.co/npm/event-stream/)
While we don't *like* the fact that **event-stream** has dependencies which have
*limited* ***automated tests***,
we are willing to place *reliance* on the module given how
"***real-world tested***" it is.
*If* at any point we find that relying **event-stream** or its underlying
dependencies is the source of a bug or sleepless nights,
we can either [***make time***](https://github.com/ideaq/time)
to contribute the tests ***or*** *write our own* version of **ps-tree**
*without dependencies*
(*which should "only" take a day but won't be as elegant...*)
## Research
### Background Reading
+ How to terminate node processes: https://github.com/joyent/node/issues/1172 (history lesson)
+ nodejs exec command failing with no useful error message:
https://github.com/joyent/node/issues/4590
### Useful StackOverflow Questions/Answers
+ [spawning node.js child processes results in zombie processes on cloud foundry](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/27381163)
+ [Why does my node app process keep getting stopped when I use forever?](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/26694100)
+ [kill all child_process when node process is killed](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/18275809)
+ [Why doesn't my Node.js process terminate once all listeners have been removed?](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/26004519)
+ [nodejs exec command failing with no useful error message](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/14319724)
+ [How many child processes can a node.js cluster spawn on a 64bit Wintel PC?](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/9275654)
+ [Why is Node.js single threaded?](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/17959663)
Other potential modules we could have used:
+ **node-ps**: https://github.com/neekey/ps (has basic tests but no coverage / unmaintained?)
+ **tree-kill**: https://www.npmjs.com/package/tree-kill (no tests!!)
+ **nexpect**: https://github.com/nodejitsu/nexpect (spawn and control child processes
looks really good, but we wanted *less abstraction*)
### Name
[**Terminate**](https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=terminate)
seemed like the *best* (of the available) name,
if you have a *better suggestion*, please share!
## This Project Reminded me of Two *xkcd* Comics:
