How do I set a timeout for client http connections in node.js

Question

I'm writing a node.js application that needs to talk to a server. It establishes an http connection with the following code:

var client = http.createClient(u.port, u.hostname, u.secure);
client.on("error", function(exception) {
    logger.error("error from client");
});
var request = client.request(method, u.path, headers);

I don't see any option in the node.js documentation for setting a timeout on the connection, and it seems to be set to 20 seconds by default. The problem I'm having is that I have users in China on what appears to be a slow or flaky network, who sometimes hit the timeout connecting to our datacenter in the US. I'd like to increase the timeout to 1 minute, to see if that fixes it for them.

Is there a way to do that in node.js?

The correct answers are all in this duplicate question: stackoverflow.com/questions/6214902/… (especially see douwe's answer) — Sandman4
– Sandman4, Commented Mar 5, 2013 at 10:51
Possible duplicate of How to set a timeout on a http.request() in Node? — Andrew Marshall
– Andrew Marshall, Commented Jan 2, 2018 at 22:09

IvanM · Accepted Answer · 2014-04-15 05:56:36Z

8

Try

request.socket.setTimeout(60000); // 60 sec

edited Apr 15, 2014 at 5:56

IvanM

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answered Oct 1, 2010 at 7:46

Matjaz Lipus

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1 Comment

Quickredfox Over a year ago

That is the right answer with node edge at least... github.com/ry/node/blob/master/lib/http.js#L774

Toby Hede · Accepted Answer · 2010-08-28 00:30:20Z

4

I think you can do something like:

request.connection.setTimeout(60000)

request.connection returns the net.Stream object associated with the connection. and net.Stream has a setTimeout method.

answered Aug 28, 2010 at 0:30

Toby Hede

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3 Comments

Dan List Over a year ago

Doesn't work. I also found there's a client.setTimeout() method, that doesn't work either. I think these are timeouts for traffic on the connection, not for establishing the connection.

Toby Hede Over a year ago

Right. Ok then ... I will have another trawl through some code. Might be worth checking how/if some of the node frameworks handle this.

Van Coding Over a year ago

Thanks that solved a WebSocket proxy problem for me ;) The connections were dead after a minute or so.

ruvim · Accepted Answer · 2017-11-28 14:18:36Z

4

There is no capability in Node to increase connect timeout. Since usually connect timeout (i.e. connection establishing timeout) is OS-wide setting for all applications (e.g., 21 seconds in Windows, from 20 to 120 seconds in Linux). See also Timouts in Request package.

In contrast, Node allows to set decreased timeout and abort connecting even in case when the connection is not yet established.

The further timeouts (in case of connection has been established) can be controlled according to the documentation (see request.setTimeout, socket.setTimeout).

edited Nov 28, 2017 at 14:18

answered Dec 20, 2014 at 20:11

ruvim

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Comments

Community · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-23 12:17:11Z

2

You have to wait for the client socket connection to be established first, before setting the timeout. To do this, add a callback for the 'socket' event:

req.on('socket', function (socket) {
    myTimeout = 500; // millis
    socket.setTimeout(myTimeout);  
    socket.on('timeout', function() {
        console.log("Timeout, aborting request")
        req.abort();
    });
}).on('error', function(e) {
    console.log("Got error: " + e.message);
    // error callback will receive a "socket hang up" on timeout
});

See this answer.

edited May 23, 2017 at 12:17

CommunityBot

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answered Mar 9, 2014 at 7:48

Pavel

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