Node >= 0.10 Streams2 protips

readme.md

@mafintosh said most of this, I just wrote it down

how to destroy/end streams in node >= 0.10

• usually you call .destroy() if it has .destroy
• if it doesnt have .destroy you are out of luck and the stream should upgrade to use e.g. newer through2
• in request you call .abort() (this should get fixed to use .destroy())
• .end() tries to end the stream gracefully

what about close

• usually no .close method exists except in FD backed streams (usually only fs). usually you would never call .close()

what about events

• finish event is emitted when a stream ends nicely (e.g. stream.end())
• close and error events are emitted when a stream ends due to failure (e.g. stream.destroy())
• end is emitted when a readable stream has no more data
• end in streams2 behaves more like a flush event, it only gets emitted when the data has been read from the readable

The close event does not indicate failure in any usage I've ever seen.

@evansolomon perhaps the wording is bad, I use failure to mean basically everything that is non-graceful. that being said you could still be correct

update: for example, http in node core basically never emits error and always emits close when errors happen

Great summary. I find close for ungraceful disconnects non-intuitive. :(