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MessagePort

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class MessagePort extends EventTarget

Instances of the worker.MessagePort class represent one end of an asynchronous, two-way communications channel. It can be used to transfer structured data, memory regions and other MessagePorts between different Workers.

This implementation matches browser MessagePorts.

E

close

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The 'close' event is emitted once either side of the channel has been disconnected.

import { MessageChannel } from 'node:worker_threads';
const { port1, port2 } = new MessageChannel();

// Prints:
//   foobar
//   closed!
port2.on('message', (message) => console.log(message));
port2.once('close', () => console.log('closed!'));

port1.postMessage('foobar');
port1.close();
JavaScript
const { MessageChannel } = require('node:worker_threads');
const { port1, port2 } = new MessageChannel();

// Prints:
//   foobar
//   closed!
port2.on('message', (message) => console.log(message));
port2.once('close', () => console.log('closed!'));

port1.postMessage('foobar');
port1.close();
JavaScript
E

message

History
Attributes
value:any
The transmitted value

The 'message' event is emitted for any incoming message, containing the cloned input of port.postMessage().

Listeners on this event receive a clone of the value parameter as passed to postMessage() and no further arguments.

E

messageerror

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Attributes
error:Error
An Error object

The 'messageerror' event is emitted when deserializing a message failed.

Currently, this event is emitted when there is an error occurring while instantiating the posted JS object on the receiving end. Such situations are rare, but can happen, for instance, when certain Node.js API objects are received in a vm.Context (where Node.js APIs are currently unavailable).

M

port.close

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port.close(): void

Disables further sending of messages on either side of the connection. This method can be called when no further communication will happen over this MessagePort.

The 'close' event is emitted on both MessagePort instances that are part of the channel.

port.postMessage(value, transferList?): void
Attributes
value:any
transferList:Object[]

Sends a JavaScript value to the receiving side of this channel. value is transferred in a way which is compatible with the HTML structured clone algorithm.

In particular, the significant differences to JSON are:

import { MessageChannel } from 'node:worker_threads';
const { port1, port2 } = new MessageChannel();

port1.on('message', (message) => console.log(message));

const circularData = {};
circularData.foo = circularData;
// Prints: { foo: [Circular] }
port2.postMessage(circularData);
JavaScript
const { MessageChannel } = require('node:worker_threads');
const { port1, port2 } = new MessageChannel();

port1.on('message', (message) => console.log(message));

const circularData = {};
circularData.foo = circularData;
// Prints: { foo: [Circular] }
port2.postMessage(circularData);
JavaScript

transferList may be a list of ArrayBuffer, MessagePort, FileHandle, net.Server, and net.Socket objects. After transferring, they are not usable on the sending side of the channel anymore (even if they are not contained in value).

Transferring a net.Server moves its listening socket — together with any pending connections in the accept queue — to the receiving thread's event loop. Transferring a net.Socket moves a single connection; the socket must be a freshly accepted or created TCP connection that has not yet started reading and has no buffered data, otherwise postMessage() throws ERR_WORKER_HANDLE_NOT_TRANSFERABLE. This makes it possible to accept connections on one thread and distribute them across a pool of worker threads. Only TCP handles are supported.

If value contains SharedArrayBuffer instances, those are accessible from either thread. They cannot be listed in transferList.

value may still contain ArrayBuffer instances that are not in transferList; in that case, the underlying memory is copied rather than moved.

import { MessageChannel } from 'node:worker_threads';
const { port1, port2 } = new MessageChannel();

port1.on('message', (message) => console.log(message));

const uint8Array = new Uint8Array([ 1, 2, 3, 4 ]);
// This posts a copy of `uint8Array`:
port2.postMessage(uint8Array);
// This does not copy data, but renders `uint8Array` unusable:
port2.postMessage(uint8Array, [ uint8Array.buffer ]);

// The memory for the `sharedUint8Array` is accessible from both the
// original and the copy received by `.on('message')`:
const sharedUint8Array = new Uint8Array(new SharedArrayBuffer(4));
port2.postMessage(sharedUint8Array);

// This transfers a freshly created message port to the receiver.
// This can be used, for example, to create communication channels between
// multiple `Worker` threads that are children of the same parent thread.
const otherChannel = new MessageChannel();
port2.postMessage({ port: otherChannel.port1 }, [ otherChannel.port1 ]);
JavaScript
const { MessageChannel } = require('node:worker_threads');
const { port1, port2 } = new MessageChannel();

port1.on('message', (message) => console.log(message));

const uint8Array = new Uint8Array([ 1, 2, 3, 4 ]);
// This posts a copy of `uint8Array`:
port2.postMessage(uint8Array);
// This does not copy data, but renders `uint8Array` unusable:
port2.postMessage(uint8Array, [ uint8Array.buffer ]);

// The memory for the `sharedUint8Array` is accessible from both the
// original and the copy received by `.on('message')`:
const sharedUint8Array = new Uint8Array(new SharedArrayBuffer(4));
port2.postMessage(sharedUint8Array);

// This transfers a freshly created message port to the receiver.
// This can be used, for example, to create communication channels between
// multiple `Worker` threads that are children of the same parent thread.
const otherChannel = new MessageChannel();
port2.postMessage({ port: otherChannel.port1 }, [ otherChannel.port1 ]);
JavaScript

The message object is cloned immediately, and can be modified after posting without having side effects.

For more information on the serialization and deserialization mechanisms behind this API, see the serialization API of the node:v8 module.

All TypedArray | Buffer instances are views over an underlying ArrayBuffer. That is, it is the ArrayBuffer that actually stores the raw data while the TypedArray and Buffer objects provide a way of viewing and manipulating the data. It is possible and common for multiple views to be created over the same ArrayBuffer instance. Great care must be taken when using a transfer list to transfer an ArrayBuffer as doing so causes all TypedArray and Buffer instances that share that same ArrayBuffer to become unusable.

const ab = new ArrayBuffer(10);

const u1 = new Uint8Array(ab);
const u2 = new Uint16Array(ab);

console.log(u2.length);  // prints 5

port.postMessage(u1, [u1.buffer]);

console.log(u2.length);  // prints 0
JavaScript

For Buffer instances, specifically, whether the underlying ArrayBuffer can be transferred or cloned depends entirely on how instances were created, which often cannot be reliably determined.

An ArrayBuffer can be marked with markAsUntransferable() to indicate that it should always be cloned and never transferred.

Depending on how a Buffer instance was created, it may or may not own its underlying ArrayBuffer. An ArrayBuffer must not be transferred unless it is known that the Buffer instance owns it. In particular, for Buffers created from the internal Buffer pool (using, for instance Buffer.from() or Buffer.allocUnsafe()), transferring them is not possible and they are always cloned, which sends a copy of the entire Buffer pool. This behavior may come with unintended higher memory usage and possible security concerns.

See Buffer.allocUnsafe() for more details on Buffer pooling.

The ArrayBuffers for Buffer instances created using Buffer.alloc() or Buffer.allocUnsafeSlow() can always be transferred but doing so renders all other existing views of those ArrayBuffers unusable.

Because object cloning uses the HTML structured clone algorithm, non-enumerable properties, property accessors, and object prototypes are not preserved. In particular, Buffer objects will be read as plain Uint8Arrays on the receiving side, and instances of JavaScript classes will be cloned as plain JavaScript objects.

const b = Symbol('b');

class Foo {
  #a = 1;
  constructor() {
    this[b] = 2;
    this.c = 3;
  }

  get d() { return this.#a + 3; }
}

const { port1, port2 } = new MessageChannel();

port1.onmessage = ({ data }) => console.log(data);

port2.postMessage(new Foo());

// Prints: { c: 3 }
JavaScript

Some built-in objects cannot be cloned at all. For example, posting a URL object throws a DataCloneError:

const { port1, port2 } = new MessageChannel();

port2.postMessage(new URL('https://example.org'));
// Throws DataCloneError: Cannot clone object of unsupported type.
JavaScript
M

port.hasRef

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port.hasRef(): boolean
Returns:boolean

If true, the MessagePort object will keep the Node.js event loop active.

M

port.ref

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port.ref(): void

Opposite of unref(). Calling ref() on a previously unref()ed port does not let the program exit if it's the only active handle left (the default behavior). If the port is ref()ed, calling ref() again has no effect.

If listeners are attached or removed using .on('message'), the port is ref()ed and unref()ed automatically depending on whether listeners for the event exist.

M

port.start

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port.start(): void

Starts receiving messages on this MessagePort. When using this port as an event emitter, this is called automatically once 'message' listeners are attached.

This method exists for parity with the Web MessagePort API. In Node.js, it is only useful for ignoring messages when no event listener is present. Node.js also diverges in its handling of .onmessage. Setting it automatically calls .start(), but unsetting it lets messages queue up until a new handler is set or the port is discarded.

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port.unref

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port.unref(): void

Calling unref() on a port allows the thread to exit if this is the only active handle in the event system. If the port is already unref()ed calling unref() again has no effect.

If listeners are attached or removed using .on('message'), the port is ref()ed and unref()ed automatically depending on whether listeners for the event exist.

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