HTTP Keep-alive, "socket hang up" ECONNERR on a long-running second request

[snarky-puppy]

Describe the bug

On keep-alive connections, if a timeout value is given to the first request but not on subsequent requests, the subsequent requests will eventually throw a "socket hang up" error.

To Reproduce

const http = require('http');
const axios = require('axios');

describe('socket hang up', () => {
    let server;
    beforeAll(done => {
        server = http.createServer(async (req, res) => {
            if (req.url === '/wait') {
                await new Promise(resolve => setTimeout(resolve, 5000));
            }
            res.end('ok');
        });
        server.listen(3000, done);
    });

    afterAll(done => {
        server.close(done);
    });

    it('will fail with "socket hang up"', async () => {
        const baseURL = `http://localhost:3000`;
        await axios.get('/1', {baseURL, timeout: 1000});
        await axios.get(`/wait`, {baseURL, timeout: 0});
    }, 15000);
});

Code snippet

No response

Expected behavior

1. "socket hang up" is misleading because it indicates the server closed the connection (in this bug the opposite is true)
2. One would not expect that a timeout would keep running after a request has completed. This is a (quite major IMO) footgun.

Axios Version

0.22.0 - 1.6.2

Adapter Version

HTTP

Browser

No response

Browser Version

No response

Node.js Version

20.9.0

OS

OSX 14

Additional Library Versions

No response

Additional context/Screenshots

[avermeil]

We're also affected by this bug.

[Avariya]

Cheers! I am affected with same bug, but can only reproduce it at Node 20.10, fallback to Node 18.18 works fine.

[snarky-puppy]

The cause of this issue is the way follow-redirects implements timeout. It has problems when dealing with keep-alive connections. A simple fix is to remove the timeout event handler when the request finishes, but I'm not sure this will work for all use-cases, as that library is mostly geared towards earlier node versions.

[NaZaRKIN123]

Same issue here. Is there any workaround except a dumb retry?

[snarky-puppy]

Same issue here. Is there any workaround except a dumb retry?

@NaZaRKIN123 Something like this would work:

axios.defaults.httpAgent = new Agent({ keepAlive: false });

[TkDodo]

I can confirm that the workaround provided by @snarky-puppy worked for us 🙏

[chanyk-joseph]

Thanks for the detail investigation. The keepAlive is needed on my project in order to reduce latency
In case we disable follow-redirects, would that be solved?

[ricfio]

+1

[KyrieLii]

+1

[davidln777]

+1

[dathacky]

+1

[nikwen]

Cheers! I am affected with same bug, but can only reproduce it at Node 20.10, fallback to Node 18.18 works fine.

This is because of #6536. Short summary: Node.js changed its default Keep-Alive behavior after Node.js 18.

[tjx666]

I try following code in next.js _app.tsx, but not worked:

// _app.tsx
if (typeof window === 'undefined') {
  /**
   * @see https://github.com/axios/axios/issues/6113#issuecomment-1909291937
   */
  async function fixAxiosKeepAlive() {
    const { default: axios } = await import('axios');
    const { Agent } = await import('https');
    axios.defaults.httpAgent = new Agent({ keepAlive: false });
  }
  fixAxiosKeepAlive();
}

Because of this issue, we have to revert from node 20 to 18, or we may try to remove the axios from our project.

[zuozp8]

axios.defaults.httpsAgent = new Agent({ keepAlive: false });

@tjx666 you should replace httpsAgent (and httpAgent too if you use http, but it's a different class)

[anchenyi]

+1

[ExpliuM]

+1