API for stream consumers

Almost all Node.js applications, no matter how simple, use streams in some manner. The following is an example of using streams in a Node.js application that implements an HTTP server:

const http = require('node:http');

const server = http.createServer((req, res) => {
  // `req` is an http.IncomingMessage, which is a readable stream.
  // `res` is an http.ServerResponse, which is a writable stream.

  let body = '';
  // Get the data as utf8 strings.
  // If an encoding is not set, Buffer objects will be received.
  req.setEncoding('utf8');

  // Readable streams emit 'data' events once a listener is added.
  req.on('data', (chunk) => {
    body += chunk;
  });

  // The 'end' event indicates that the entire body has been received.
  req.on('end', () => {
    try {
      const data = JSON.parse(body);
      // Write back something interesting to the user:
      res.write(typeof data);
      res.end();
    } catch (er) {
      // uh oh! bad json!
      res.statusCode = 400;
      return res.end(`error: ${er.message}`);
    }
  });
});

server.listen(1337);

// $ curl localhost:1337 -d "{}"
// object
// $ curl localhost:1337 -d "\"foo\""
// string
// $ curl localhost:1337 -d "not json"
// error: Unexpected token 'o', "not json" is not valid JSON

Writable streams (such as res in the example) expose methods such as write() and end() that are used to write data onto the stream.

Readable streams use the EventEmitter API for notifying application code when data is available to be read off the stream. That available data can be read from the stream in multiple ways.

Both Writable and Readable streams use the EventEmitter API in various ways to communicate the current state of the stream.

Duplex and Transform streams are both Writable and Readable.

Applications that are either writing data to or consuming data from a stream are not required to implement the stream interfaces directly and will generally have no reason to call require('node:stream').

Developers wishing to implement new types of streams should refer to the section API for stream implementers.

Writable streams are an abstraction for a destination to which data is written.

Examples of Writable streams include:

• HTTP requests, on the client
• HTTP responses, on the server
• fs write streams
• zlib streams
• crypto streams
• TCP sockets
• child process stdin
• process.stdout, process.stderr

Some of these examples are actually Duplex streams that implement the Writable interface.

All Writable streams implement the interface defined by the stream.Writable class.

While specific instances of Writable streams may differ in various ways, all Writable streams follow the same fundamental usage pattern as illustrated in the example below:

const myStream = getWritableStreamSomehow();
myStream.write('some data');
myStream.write('some more data');
myStream.end('done writing data');

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.

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);
    }
  }
}

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).

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');

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);

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);

writable.cork(): void

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?): this

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

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

const myStream = new Writable();

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

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

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

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

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().

Is true after 'close' has been emitted.

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

writable.end(chunk?, encoding?, callback?): this

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!

writable.setDefaultEncoding(encoding): this

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

writable.uncork(): void

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());

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();
});

See also: writable.cork().

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

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

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.

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

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

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

Return the value of highWaterMark passed when creating this Writable.

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.

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

Getter for the property objectMode of a given Writable stream.

writable[Symbol.asyncDispose](): void

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

writable.write(chunk, encoding?, callback?): boolean

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.');
});

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

Readable streams are an abstraction for a source from which data is consumed.

Examples of Readable streams include:

• HTTP responses, on the client
• HTTP requests, on the server
• fs read streams
• zlib streams
• crypto streams
• TCP sockets
• child process stdout and stderr
• process.stdin

All Readable streams implement the interface defined by the stream.Readable class.

Readable streams effectively operate in one of two modes: flowing and paused. These modes are separate from object mode. A Readable stream can be in object mode or not, regardless of whether it is in flowing mode or paused mode.

• In flowing mode, data is read from the underlying system automatically and provided to an application as quickly as possible using events via the EventEmitter interface.

• In paused mode, the stream.read() method must be called explicitly to read chunks of data from the stream.

All Readable streams begin in paused mode but can be switched to flowing mode in one of the following ways:

• Adding a 'data' event handler.
• Calling the stream.resume() method.
• Calling the stream.pipe() method to send the data to a Writable.

The Readable can switch back to paused mode using one of the following:

• If there are no pipe destinations, by calling the stream.pause() method.
• If there are pipe destinations, by removing all pipe destinations. Multiple pipe destinations may be removed by calling the stream.unpipe() method.

The important concept to remember is that a Readable will not generate data until a mechanism for either consuming or ignoring that data is provided. If the consuming mechanism is disabled or taken away, the Readable will attempt to stop generating the data.

For backward compatibility reasons, removing 'data' event handlers will not automatically pause the stream. Also, if there are piped destinations, then calling stream.pause() will not guarantee that the stream will remain paused once those destinations drain and ask for more data.

If a Readable is switched into flowing mode and there are no consumers available to handle the data, that data will be lost. This can occur, for instance, when the readable.resume() method is called without a listener attached to the 'data' event, or when a 'data' event handler is removed from the stream.

Adding a 'readable' event handler automatically makes the stream stop flowing, and the data has to be consumed via readable.read(). If the 'readable' event handler is removed, then the stream will start flowing again if there is a 'data' event handler.

The "two modes" of operation for a Readable stream are a simplified abstraction for the more complicated internal state management that is happening within the Readable stream implementation.

Specifically, at any given point in time, every Readable is in one of three possible states:

• readable.readableFlowing === null
• readable.readableFlowing === false
• readable.readableFlowing === true

When readable.readableFlowing is null, no mechanism for consuming the stream's data is provided. Therefore, the stream will not generate data. While in this state, attaching a listener for the 'data' event, calling the readable.pipe() method, or calling the readable.resume() method will switch readable.readableFlowing to true, causing the Readable to begin actively emitting events as data is generated.

Calling readable.pause(), readable.unpipe(), or receiving backpressure will cause the readable.readableFlowing to be set as false, temporarily halting the flowing of events but not halting the generation of data. While in this state, attaching a listener for the 'data' event will not switch readable.readableFlowing to true.

const { PassThrough, Writable } = require('node:stream');
const pass = new PassThrough();
const writable = new Writable();

pass.pipe(writable);
pass.unpipe(writable);
// readableFlowing is now false.

pass.on('data', (chunk) => { console.log(chunk.toString()); });
// readableFlowing is still false.
pass.write('ok');  // Will not emit 'data'.
pass.resume();     // Must be called to make stream emit 'data'.
// readableFlowing is now true.

While readable.readableFlowing is false, data may be accumulating within the stream's internal buffer.

The Readable stream API evolved across multiple Node.js versions and provides multiple methods of consuming stream data. In general, developers should choose one of the methods of consuming data and should never use multiple methods to consume data from a single stream. Specifically, using a combination of on('data'), on('readable'), pipe(), or async iterators could lead to unintuitive behavior.

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.

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.`);
});

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.');
});

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.

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

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);
  }
});

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');
});

The output of running this script is:

$ node test.js
readable: null
end

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().

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

readable.destroy(error?): this

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().

Is true after 'close' has been emitted.

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

readable.isPaused(): boolean

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

readable.pause(): this

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);
});

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

readable.pipe(destination, options?): stream.Writable

The readable.pipe() method attaches a Writable stream to the readable, causing it to switch automatically into flowing mode and push all of its data to the attached Writable. The flow of data will be automatically managed so that the destination Writable stream is not overwhelmed by a faster Readable stream.

The following example pipes all of the data from the readable into a file named file.txt:

const fs = require('node:fs');
const readable = getReadableStreamSomehow();
const writable = fs.createWriteStream('file.txt');
// All the data from readable goes into 'file.txt'.
readable.pipe(writable);

It is possible to attach multiple Writable streams to a single Readable stream.

The readable.pipe() method returns a reference to the destination stream making it possible to set up chains of piped streams:

const fs = require('node:fs');
const zlib = require('node:zlib');
const r = fs.createReadStream('file.txt');
const z = zlib.createGzip();
const w = fs.createWriteStream('file.txt.gz');
r.pipe(z).pipe(w);

By default, stream.end() is called on the destination Writable stream when the source Readable stream emits 'end', so that the destination is no longer writable. To disable this default behavior, the end option can be passed as false, causing the destination stream to remain open:

reader.pipe(writer, { end: false });
reader.on('end', () => {
  writer.end('Goodbye\n');
});

One important caveat is that if the Readable stream emits an error during processing, the Writable destination is not closed automatically. If an error occurs, it will be necessary to manually close each stream in order to prevent memory leaks.

The process.stderr and process.stdout Writable streams are never closed until the Node.js process exits, regardless of the specified options.

read(size?): string | Buffer | null | any

The readable.read() method reads data out of the internal buffer and returns it. If no data is available to be read, null is returned. By default, the data is returned as a Buffer object unless an encoding has been specified using the readable.setEncoding() method or the stream is operating in object mode.

The optional size argument specifies a specific number of bytes to read. If size bytes are not available to be read, null will be returned unless the stream has ended, in which case all of the data remaining in the internal buffer will be returned.

If the size argument is not specified, all of the data contained in the internal buffer will be returned.

The size argument must be less than or equal to 1 GiB.

The readable.read() method should only be called on Readable streams operating in paused mode. In flowing mode, readable.read() is called automatically until the internal buffer is fully drained.

const readable = getReadableStreamSomehow();

// 'readable' may be triggered multiple times as data is buffered in
readable.on('readable', () => {
  let chunk;
  console.log('Stream is readable (new data received in buffer)');
  // Use a loop to make sure we read all currently available data
  while (null !== (chunk = readable.read())) {
    console.log(`Read ${chunk.length} bytes of data...`);
  }
});

// 'end' will be triggered once when there is no more data available
readable.on('end', () => {
  console.log('Reached end of stream.');
});

Each call to readable.read() returns a chunk of data or null, signifying that there's no more data to read at that moment. These chunks aren't automatically concatenated. Because a single read() call does not return all the data, using a while loop may be necessary to continuously read chunks until all data is retrieved. When reading a large file, .read() might return null temporarily, indicating that it has consumed all buffered content but there may be more data yet to be buffered. In such cases, a new 'readable' event is emitted once there's more data in the buffer, and the 'end' event signifies the end of data transmission.

Therefore to read a file's whole contents from a readable, it is necessary to collect chunks across multiple 'readable' events:

const chunks = [];

readable.on('readable', () => {
  let chunk;
  while (null !== (chunk = readable.read())) {
    chunks.push(chunk);
  }
});

readable.on('end', () => {
  const content = chunks.join('');
});

A Readable stream in object mode will always return a single item from a call to readable.read(size), regardless of the value of the size argument.

If the readable.read() method returns a chunk of data, a 'data' event will also be emitted.

Calling stream.read([size]) after the 'end' event has been emitted will return null. No runtime error will be raised.

Is true if it is safe to call readable.read(), which means the stream has not been destroyed or emitted 'error' or 'end'.

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

Returns whether 'data' has been emitted.

Getter for the property encoding of a given Readable stream. The encoding property can be set using the readable.setEncoding() method.

Becomes true when 'end' event is emitted.

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

This property reflects the current state of a Readable stream as described in the Three states section.

Returns the value of highWaterMark passed when creating this Readable.

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

Getter for the property objectMode of a given Readable stream.

readable.resume(): this

The readable.resume() method causes an explicitly paused Readable stream to resume emitting 'data' events, switching the stream into flowing mode.

The readable.resume() method can be used to fully consume the data from a stream without actually processing any of that data:

getReadableStreamSomehow()
  .resume()
  .on('end', () => {
    console.log('Reached the end, but did not read anything.');
  });

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

readable.setEncoding(encoding): this

The readable.setEncoding() method sets the character encoding for data read from the Readable stream.

By default, no encoding is assigned and stream data will be returned as Buffer objects. Setting an encoding causes the stream data to be returned as strings of the specified encoding rather than as Buffer objects. For instance, calling readable.setEncoding('utf8') will cause the output data to be interpreted as UTF-8 data, and passed as strings. Calling readable.setEncoding('hex') will cause the data to be encoded in hexadecimal string format.

The Readable stream will properly handle multi-byte characters delivered through the stream that would otherwise become improperly decoded if simply pulled from the stream as Buffer objects.

const readable = getReadableStreamSomehow();
readable.setEncoding('utf8');
readable.on('data', (chunk) => {
  assert.equal(typeof chunk, 'string');
  console.log('Got %d characters of string data:', chunk.length);
});

readable.unpipe(destination?): this

The readable.unpipe() method detaches a Writable stream previously attached using the stream.pipe() method.

If the destination is not specified, then all pipes are detached.

If the destination is specified, but no pipe is set up for it, then the method does nothing.

const fs = require('node:fs');
const readable = getReadableStreamSomehow();
const writable = fs.createWriteStream('file.txt');
// All the data from readable goes into 'file.txt',
// but only for the first second.
readable.pipe(writable);
setTimeout(() => {
  console.log('Stop writing to file.txt.');
  readable.unpipe(writable);
  console.log('Manually close the file stream.');
  writable.end();
}, 1000);

readable.unshift(chunk, encoding?): void

Passing chunk as null signals the end of the stream (EOF) and behaves the same as readable.push(null), after which no more data can be written. The EOF signal is put at the end of the buffer and any buffered data will still be flushed.

The readable.unshift() method pushes a chunk of data back into the internal buffer. This is useful in certain situations where a stream is being consumed by code that needs to "un-consume" some amount of data that it has optimistically pulled out of the source, so that the data can be passed on to some other party.

The stream.unshift(chunk) method cannot be called after the 'end' event has been emitted or a runtime error will be thrown.

Developers using stream.unshift() often should consider switching to use of a Transform stream instead. See the API for stream implementers section for more information.

// Pull off a header delimited by \n\n.
// Use unshift() if we get too much.
// Call the callback with (error, header, stream).
const { StringDecoder } = require('node:string_decoder');
function parseHeader(stream, callback) {
  stream.on('error', callback);
  stream.on('readable', onReadable);
  const decoder = new StringDecoder('utf8');
  let header = '';
  function onReadable() {
    let chunk;
    while (null !== (chunk = stream.read())) {
      const str = decoder.write(chunk);
      if (str.includes('\n\n')) {
        // Found the header boundary.
        const split = str.split(/\n\n/);
        header += split.shift();
        const remaining = split.join('\n\n');
        const buf = Buffer.from(remaining, 'utf8');
        stream.removeListener('error', callback);
        // Remove the 'readable' listener before unshifting.
        stream.removeListener('readable', onReadable);
        if (buf.length)
          stream.unshift(buf);
        // Now the body of the message can be read from the stream.
        callback(null, header, stream);
        return;
      }
      // Still reading the header.
      header += str;
    }
  }
}

Unlike stream.push(chunk), stream.unshift(chunk) will not end the reading process by resetting the internal reading state of the stream. This can cause unexpected results if readable.unshift() is called during a read (i.e. from within a stream._read() implementation on a custom stream). Following the call to readable.unshift() with an immediate stream.push('') will reset the reading state appropriately, however it is best to simply avoid calling readable.unshift() while in the process of performing a read.

readable.wrap(stream): this

Prior to Node.js 0.10, streams did not implement the entire node:stream module API as it is currently defined. (See Compatibility for more information.)

When using an older Node.js library that emits 'data' events and has a stream.pause() method that is advisory only, the readable.wrap() method can be used to create a Readable stream that uses the old stream as its data source.

It will rarely be necessary to use readable.wrap() but the method has been provided as a convenience for interacting with older Node.js applications and libraries.

const { OldReader } = require('./old-api-module.js');
const { Readable } = require('node:stream');
const oreader = new OldReader();
const myReader = new Readable().wrap(oreader);

myReader.on('readable', () => {
  myReader.read(); // etc.
});

readable[Symbol.asyncIterator](): AsyncIterator

const fs = require('node:fs');

async function print(readable) {
  readable.setEncoding('utf8');
  let data = '';
  for await (const chunk of readable) {
    data += chunk;
  }
  console.log(data);
}

print(fs.createReadStream('file')).catch(console.error);

If the loop terminates with a break, return, or a throw, the stream will be destroyed. In other terms, iterating over a stream will consume the stream fully. The stream will be read in chunks of size equal to the highWaterMark option. In the code example above, data will be in a single chunk if the file has less than 64 KiB of data because no highWaterMark option is provided to fs.createReadStream().

readable[Symbol.for('Stream.toAsyncStreamable')](): AsyncIterable

When the --experimental-stream-iter flag is enabled, Readable streams implement the Stream.toAsyncStreamable protocol, enabling efficient consumption by the stream/iter API.

This provides a batched async iterator that drains the stream's internal buffer into Uint8Array[] batches, amortizing the per-chunk Promise overhead of the standard Symbol.asyncIterator path. For byte-mode streams, chunks are yielded directly as Buffer instances (which are Uint8Array subclasses). For object-mode or encoded streams, each chunk is normalized to Uint8Array before batching.

The returned iterator is tagged as a validated source, so from() passes it through without additional normalization.

import { Readable } from 'node:stream';
import { text, from } from 'node:stream/iter';

const readable = new Readable({
  read() { this.push('hello'); this.push(null); },
});

// Readable is automatically consumed via toAsyncStreamable
console.log(await text(from(readable))); // 'hello'

const { Readable } = require('node:stream');
const { text, from } = require('node:stream/iter');

async function run() {
  const readable = new Readable({
    read() { this.push('hello'); this.push(null); },
  });

  console.log(await text(from(readable))); // 'hello'
}

run().catch(console.error);

Without the --experimental-stream-iter flag, calling this method throws ERR_STREAM_ITER_MISSING_FLAG.

readable[Symbol.asyncDispose](): void

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

readable.compose(stream, options?): Duplex

import { Readable } from 'node:stream';

async function* splitToWords(source) {
  for await (const chunk of source) {
    const words = String(chunk).split(' ');

    for (const word of words) {
      yield word;
    }
  }
}

const wordsStream = Readable.from(['text passed through', 'composed stream']).compose(splitToWords);
const words = await wordsStream.toArray();

console.log(words); // prints ['text', 'passed', 'through', 'composed', 'stream']

readable.compose(s) is equivalent to stream.compose(readable, s).

This method also allows for an AbortSignal to be provided, which will destroy the composed stream when aborted.

See stream.compose(...streams) for more information.

readable.iterator(options?): AsyncIterator

The iterator created by this method gives users the option to cancel the destruction of the stream if the for await...of loop is exited by return, break, or throw, or if the iterator should destroy the stream if the stream emitted an error during iteration.

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

async function printIterator(readable) {
  for await (const chunk of readable.iterator({ destroyOnReturn: false })) {
    console.log(chunk); // 1
    break;
  }

  console.log(readable.destroyed); // false

  for await (const chunk of readable.iterator({ destroyOnReturn: false })) {
    console.log(chunk); // Will print 2 and then 3
  }

  console.log(readable.destroyed); // True, stream was totally consumed
}

async function printSymbolAsyncIterator(readable) {
  for await (const chunk of readable) {
    console.log(chunk); // 1
    break;
  }

  console.log(readable.destroyed); // true
}

async function showBoth() {
  await printIterator(Readable.from([1, 2, 3]));
  await printSymbolAsyncIterator(Readable.from([1, 2, 3]));
}

showBoth();

readable.map(fn, options?): Readable

This method allows mapping over the stream. The fn function will be called for every chunk in the stream. If the fn function returns a promise - that promise will be awaited before being passed to the result stream.

import { Readable } from 'node:stream';
import { Resolver } from 'node:dns/promises';

// With a synchronous mapper.
for await (const chunk of Readable.from([1, 2, 3, 4]).map((x) => x * 2)) {
  console.log(chunk); // 2, 4, 6, 8
}
// With an asynchronous mapper, making at most 2 queries at a time.
const resolver = new Resolver();
const dnsResults = Readable.from([
  'nodejs.org',
  'openjsf.org',
  'www.linuxfoundation.org',
]).map((domain) => resolver.resolve4(domain), { concurrency: 2 });
for await (const result of dnsResults) {
  console.log(result); // Logs the DNS result of resolver.resolve4.
}

readable.filter(fn, options?): Readable

This method allows filtering the stream. For each chunk in the stream the fn function will be called and if it returns a truthy value, the chunk will be passed to the result stream. If the fn function returns a promise - that promise will be awaited.

import { Readable } from 'node:stream';
import { Resolver } from 'node:dns/promises';

// With a synchronous predicate.
for await (const chunk of Readable.from([1, 2, 3, 4]).filter((x) => x > 2)) {
  console.log(chunk); // 3, 4
}
// With an asynchronous predicate, making at most 2 queries at a time.
const resolver = new Resolver();
const dnsResults = Readable.from([
  'nodejs.org',
  'openjsf.org',
  'www.linuxfoundation.org',
]).filter(async (domain) => {
  const { address } = await resolver.resolve4(domain, { ttl: true });
  return address.ttl > 60;
}, { concurrency: 2 });
for await (const result of dnsResults) {
  // Logs domains with more than 60 seconds on the resolved dns record.
  console.log(result);
}

readable.forEach(fn, options?): Promise

This method allows iterating a stream. For each chunk in the stream the fn function will be called. If the fn function returns a promise - that promise will be awaited.

This method is different from for await...of loops in that it can optionally process chunks concurrently. In addition, a forEach iteration can only be stopped by having passed a signal option and aborting the related AbortController while for await...of can be stopped with break or return. In either case the stream will be destroyed.

This method is different from listening to the 'data' event in that it uses the readable event in the underlying machinery and can limit the number of concurrent fn calls.

import { Readable } from 'node:stream';
import { Resolver } from 'node:dns/promises';

// With a synchronous predicate.
for await (const chunk of Readable.from([1, 2, 3, 4]).filter((x) => x > 2)) {
  console.log(chunk); // 3, 4
}
// With an asynchronous predicate, making at most 2 queries at a time.
const resolver = new Resolver();
const dnsResults = Readable.from([
  'nodejs.org',
  'openjsf.org',
  'www.linuxfoundation.org',
]).map(async (domain) => {
  const { address } = await resolver.resolve4(domain, { ttl: true });
  return address;
}, { concurrency: 2 });
await dnsResults.forEach((result) => {
  // Logs result, similar to `for await (const result of dnsResults)`
  console.log(result);
});
console.log('done'); // Stream has finished

readable.toArray(options?): Promise

This method allows easily obtaining the contents of a stream.

As this method reads the entire stream into memory, it negates the benefits of streams. It's intended for interoperability and convenience, not as the primary way to consume streams.

import { Readable } from 'node:stream';
import { Resolver } from 'node:dns/promises';

await Readable.from([1, 2, 3, 4]).toArray(); // [1, 2, 3, 4]

const resolver = new Resolver();

// Make dns queries concurrently using .map and collect
// the results into an array using toArray
const dnsResults = await Readable.from([
  'nodejs.org',
  'openjsf.org',
  'www.linuxfoundation.org',
]).map(async (domain) => {
  const { address } = await resolver.resolve4(domain, { ttl: true });
  return address;
}, { concurrency: 2 }).toArray();

readable.some(fn, options?): Promise

This method is similar to Array.prototype.some and calls fn on each chunk in the stream until the awaited return value is true (or any truthy value). Once an fn call on a chunk awaited return value is truthy, the stream is destroyed and the promise is fulfilled with true. If none of the fn calls on the chunks return a truthy value, the promise is fulfilled with false.

import { Readable } from 'node:stream';
import { stat } from 'node:fs/promises';

// With a synchronous predicate.
await Readable.from([1, 2, 3, 4]).some((x) => x > 2); // true
await Readable.from([1, 2, 3, 4]).some((x) => x < 0); // false

// With an asynchronous predicate, making at most 2 file checks at a time.
const anyBigFile = await Readable.from([
  'file1',
  'file2',
  'file3',
]).some(async (fileName) => {
  const stats = await stat(fileName);
  return stats.size > 1024 * 1024;
}, { concurrency: 2 });
console.log(anyBigFile); // `true` if any file in the list is bigger than 1MB
console.log('done'); // Stream has finished