no-process-exit

📡 Live from GitHub — This documentation is fetched directly from no-process-exit.md and cached for 6 hours.

Keywords: process.exit, Node.js, graceful shutdown, ESLint rule, server, LLM-optimized

Prevents direct process.exit() calls to encourage graceful shutdown patterns. This rule is part of eslint-plugin-operability.

Prevents direct process.exit() calls to encourage graceful shutdown patterns. This rule is part of eslint-plugin-operability.

Quick Summary

Aspect	Details
Severity	Warning (development)
Auto-Fix	❌ No (requires architecture change)
Category	Development
ESLint MCP	✅ Optimized for ESLint MCP integration
Best For	Node.js servers, long-running processes, graceful shutdown

Rule Details

Direct process.exit() calls terminate the process immediately without allowing cleanup operations, pending I/O, or graceful connection closing.

Why This Matters

Issue	Impact	Solution
🔌 Open connections	Clients receive errors	Graceful shutdown
💾 Unsaved data	Data loss on exit	Flush before exit
🔄 Pending requests	Interrupted operations	Wait for completion
🧹 Cleanup	Resources not released	Use exit handlers

Examples

❌ Incorrect

// Direct process.exit
if (error) {
  process.exit(1);
}

// In error handlers
process.on('uncaughtException', (err) => {
  console.error(err);
  process.exit(1);  // Immediate termination
});

✅ Correct

// Use throw for errors
if (error) {
  throw new Error('Configuration error');
}

// Graceful shutdown pattern
function gracefulShutdown(signal: string) {
  console.log(`Received ${signal}. Starting graceful shutdown...`);
  
  server.close(() => {
    console.log('HTTP server closed');
    database.close(() => {
      console.log('Database connection closed');
      // Process will exit naturally
    });
  });
  
  // Force exit after timeout
  setTimeout(() => {
    console.error('Forced shutdown after timeout');
    process.exit(1);  // eslint-disable-line quality/no-process-exit
  }, 30000);
}

process.on('SIGTERM', () => gracefulShutdown('SIGTERM'));
process.on('SIGINT', () => gracefulShutdown('SIGINT'));

Configuration Examples

Basic Usage

{
  rules: {
    'operability/no-process-exit': 'warn'
  }
}

When To Disable

// CLI tools may legitimately use process.exit
// eslint-disable-next-line quality/no-process-exit
process.exit(exitCode);

no-console-log - Console logging control

Known False Negatives

The following patterns are not detected due to static analysis limitations:

Dynamic Variable References

Why: Static analysis cannot trace values stored in variables or passed through function parameters.

// ❌ NOT DETECTED - Value from variable
const value = externalSource();
processValue(value); // Variable origin not tracked

Mitigation: Implement runtime validation and review code manually. Consider using TypeScript branded types for validated inputs.

Wrapped or Aliased Functions

Why: Custom wrapper functions or aliased methods are not recognized by the rule.

// ❌ NOT DETECTED - Custom wrapper
function myWrapper(data) {
  return internalApi(data); // Wrapper not analyzed
}
myWrapper(unsafeInput);

Mitigation: Apply this rule's principles to wrapper function implementations. Avoid aliasing security-sensitive functions.

Imported Values

Why: When values come from imports, the rule cannot analyze their origin or construction.

// ❌ NOT DETECTED - Value from import
import { getValue } from './helpers';
processValue(getValue()); // Cross-file not tracked

Mitigation: Ensure imported values follow the same constraints. Use TypeScript for type safety.