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Show HN: Zones for Node.js using async_hooks

25 points by cztomsik 9y ago

cztomsik 9y ago
Useful if you need "contextual" async/await (access current transaction, request, ...)
deorder 9y ago
Note that this is based on experimental functionality in NodeJS. Similar functionality had been inside NodeJS before and was removed. This is mostly used internally for other stuff. This is similar to dynamic scoping.
- cztomsik 9y ago
  Good point.
- moltar 9y ago
  The Async Hooks API is still experimental but should be stabilized by Node.js 10.
- drifkin 9y ago
  By "similar functionality" are you talking about domains? If so, it's been deprecated for quite a while, but has never been removed.
nevir 9y ago
Also see https://github.com/othiym23/node-continuation-local-storage https://github.com/othiym23/node-continuation-local-storage
- electrotype 9y ago
  Can someone please compare both? Does the fact that Minizone is based on "async_hooks" make it more future proof? Less hacky?
  - gcommer 9y ago
    Zone.js is an existing library to try and provide CLS in javascript. async_hooks is an experimental API being built in to node to allow this. The OP is a project implementing a zone.js-style API using async_hooks. Also see this PR on the original zone.js project where they are working to use this in the original library, but have hit many edge cases/issues: https://github.com/angular/zone.js/pull/795 https://github.com/angular/zone.js/pull/795
dr_win 9y ago
A few years back I wrote something similar for ClojureScript: https://github.com/binaryage/cljs-zones https://github.com/binaryage/cljs-zones The drawback was the need to manually wrap all participating async functions into a special macro (zones/bound-fn). With async_hooks this could be automated I believe.
yjftsjthsd-h 9y ago
"A Zone is an execution context that persists across async tasks. You can think of it as thread-local storage for JavaScript VMs." In case anyone else was wondering.
- z3t4 9y ago
  Like a closure !?
  - cztomsik 9y ago
    More like a context, any function can then access data relative to current request, transaction, and similar "async" flows. This is otherwise impossible with async/await.
emilsedgh 9y ago
Perfect! We used domains for this but the module was marked as deprecated and it stressed me out, knowing that we depend on a deprecated concept that will be removed soon. Now all I need to do is to abstract domain usage so when the time cones I can switch to Zones.
rwbcxrz 9y ago
I've always been under the impression that concepts like thread/continuation-local storage were generally discouraged, but I never fully understood the reason. Obviously, you'd want to avoid coupling your code to an HTTP-specific context if you want to expose a gRPC endpoint in the future. Are there any other downsides to this approach?
- gcommer 9y ago
  The problem is that all CLS systems in JS are inherently leaky, due to the many games JS libraries/apps can (and do) play with resource pooling. Implementors basically have to play a plug-the-holes game getting all the popular libraries to properly "play along" with the CLS system. For example, domains needed tons of PRs very similar in nature to this: https://github.com/sequelize/sequelize/pull/589/files#diff-1fcbe253f68a98bb45ab62b33825d759R8 https://github.com/sequelize/sequelize/pull/589/files#diff-1... Also, they typically come with a sizable perf hit: https://github.com/bmeurer/async-hooks-performance-impact https://github.com/bmeurer/async-hooks-performance-impact
inglor 9y ago
The reason we don't have zones in Node is because they mess up with error handling. I recommend anyone considering Zones to read trevnorris's domain postmortem https://gist.github.com/trevnorris/d19addf4aa09a0a31a4a14e90cb5c302 https://gist.github.com/trevnorris/d19addf4aa09a0a31a4a14e90...
- cztomsik 9y ago
  This sounds like zones are bad idea but those problems are related only to process.nextTick and setTimeout, if you're using promises (which I do for 99.9% things) you're fine.
  - inglor 9y ago
    If you're using promises and async/await then you don't have any of those problems anyway :)
    - cztomsik 9y ago
      Pure async/await does not allow to track any contextual state - like current transaction/request.

25 points by cztomsik 9y ago

Useful if you need "contextual" async/await (access current transaction, request, ...)

Note that this is based on experimental functionality in NodeJS. Similar functionality had been inside NodeJS before and was removed. This is mostly used internally for other stuff. This is similar to dynamic scoping.

cztomsik 9y ago
Good point.
moltar 9y ago
The Async Hooks API is still experimental but should be stabilized by Node.js 10.
drifkin 9y ago
By "similar functionality" are you talking about domains? If so, it's been deprecated for quite a while, but has never been removed.

nevir 9y ago

Also see https://github.com/othiym23/node-continuation-local-storage https://github.com/othiym23/node-continuation-local-storage

electrotype 9y ago
Can someone please compare both? Does the fact that Minizone is based on "async_hooks" make it more future proof? Less hacky?
- gcommer 9y ago
  Zone.js is an existing library to try and provide CLS in javascript. async_hooks is an experimental API being built in to node to allow this. The OP is a project implementing a zone.js-style API using async_hooks. Also see this PR on the original zone.js project where they are working to use this in the original library, but have hit many edge cases/issues: https://github.com/angular/zone.js/pull/795 https://github.com/angular/zone.js/pull/795

dr_win 9y ago

A few years back I wrote something similar for ClojureScript: https://github.com/binaryage/cljs-zones https://github.com/binaryage/cljs-zones The drawback was the need to manually wrap all participating async functions into a special macro (zones/bound-fn). With async_hooks this could be automated I believe.

yjftsjthsd-h 9y ago

"A Zone is an execution context that persists across async tasks. You can think of it as thread-local storage for JavaScript VMs." In case anyone else was wondering.

z3t4 9y ago
Like a closure !?
- cztomsik 9y ago
  More like a context, any function can then access data relative to current request, transaction, and similar "async" flows. This is otherwise impossible with async/await.

emilsedgh 9y ago

Perfect! We used domains for this but the module was marked as deprecated and it stressed me out, knowing that we depend on a deprecated concept that will be removed soon. Now all I need to do is to abstract domain usage so when the time cones I can switch to Zones.

rwbcxrz 9y ago

I've always been under the impression that concepts like thread/continuation-local storage were generally discouraged, but I never fully understood the reason. Obviously, you'd want to avoid coupling your code to an HTTP-specific context if you want to expose a gRPC endpoint in the future. Are there any other downsides to this approach?

gcommer 9y ago
The problem is that all CLS systems in JS are inherently leaky, due to the many games JS libraries/apps can (and do) play with resource pooling. Implementors basically have to play a plug-the-holes game getting all the popular libraries to properly "play along" with the CLS system. For example, domains needed tons of PRs very similar in nature to this: https://github.com/sequelize/sequelize/pull/589/files#diff-1fcbe253f68a98bb45ab62b33825d759R8 https://github.com/sequelize/sequelize/pull/589/files#diff-1... Also, they typically come with a sizable perf hit: https://github.com/bmeurer/async-hooks-performance-impact https://github.com/bmeurer/async-hooks-performance-impact

inglor 9y ago

The reason we don't have zones in Node is because they mess up with error handling. I recommend anyone considering Zones to read trevnorris's domain postmortem https://gist.github.com/trevnorris/d19addf4aa09a0a31a4a14e90cb5c302 https://gist.github.com/trevnorris/d19addf4aa09a0a31a4a14e90...

cztomsik 9y ago
This sounds like zones are bad idea but those problems are related only to process.nextTick and setTimeout, if you're using promises (which I do for 99.9% things) you're fine.
- inglor 9y ago
  If you're using promises and async/await then you don't have any of those problems anyway :)
  - cztomsik 9y ago
    Pure async/await does not allow to track any contextual state - like current transaction/request.