connectTimeout doesn't work, request hangs forever

[Alexey Komarov]

Hello,

If I create restifyClient and then do 3 requests to a server 

without closing the client, connectTimeout doesn't work and the call hangs 

for a long time (~20 minutes).

To illustrate the issue I wrote a small script which is attached.

It's a bit nasty and requires sudo but it's simple and can be run on linux without

any remote server. However, this also can be reproduced with a remote server,

if you put local or remote interface down after the second request.

Could someone explain why connectTimeout doesn't work here?

const restify = require('restify');
const assert = require('assert');
const exec = require('child_process').exec;

var server = restify.createServer();
var myIf = 'eth0:1';

function ifUp(cb) {
    exec('ifconfig ' + myIf + ' 192.168.32.1', function(err) {
        assert(!err);
        cb();
    });
}

function ifDown(cb) {
    exec('ifconfig ' + myIf + ' down', function(err) {
        assert(!err);
        cb();
    });
}

function serverUp(cb) {
    server.get('/', function (req, res, next) {
        res.send('foo');
        next();
    });

    server.listen(7777, cb);
}

function prepare(cb) {
    ifUp(function() {
        serverUp(cb);
    });
}

var client = restify.createStringClient({
    url: 'http://192.168.32.1:7777',
    connectTimeout: 3000,
    requestTimeout: 3000,
    version: '*',
    retry: false
});

prepare(function() {
    console.log('request 1');

    client.get('/', function(err, req, res, data)  {
        assert(!err);

        console.log('request 2');
        client.get('/', function(err, req, res, data) {
            assert(!err);

            ifDown(function() {
                console.log("request 3", new Date());

                client.get('/', function(err, req, res, data) {
                    console.log("done", new Date());
                    console.log(err);
                });
            });
        });
    });
});

Thanks,
Alexey Komarov

[Alexey Komarov]

I think I'm starting to understand,
the problem is here:
https://github.com/restify/node-restify/blob/4.x/lib/clients/http_client.js#L223

When I do third and further requests, requestTimeout is just not set.
For second request it's set because _socket._connecting == true (I don't understand why)
But when I do third and further requests, _socket._connecting == false, so requestTimeout is not set.

This can be easily reproduced on any OS, all you need is just a simple HTTP server which replies with a delay (e.g. 10 sec).
Simplified script:

const restify = require('restify');

const assert = require('assert');

const exec = require('child_process').exec;

var server = restify.createServer();

var i = 0;

server.get('/', function (req, res, next) {

    if (i++) {

        setInterval(function() {

            res.send('bar');

            next();

        }, 10000);

        return;

    }

    res.send('foo');

    next();

});

server.listen(7777, function() {

    console.log('server started');

});

var client = restify.createStringClient({

    url: 'http://127.0.0.1:7777',

    connectTimeout: 3000,

    requestTimeout: 3000,

    version: '*',

    retry: false

});

console.log('request 1');

client.get('/', function(err, req, res, data)  {

    assert(!err);

    console.log('request 2', new Date());

    client.get('/', function(err, req, res, data) {

        console.log("done", new Date());

        console.log(err);

        console.log('request 3', new Date());

        client.get('/', function(err, req, res, data) {

            console.log("done", new Date());

            console.log(err);

        });

    });

});

Third request waits for 10 seconds despite reqestTimeout which I set when created the client.