async_hooks.createHook

async_hooks.createHook(options): AsyncHook

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) { },
});

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());

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.

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.

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' });
}

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.