Cannot work with stdin in a sub-subprocess with require('child_process').fork()

[indexzero]

I'm pretty sure this is a bug. @substack and I spent some time tracking this down when his application wouldn't deploy to nodejitsu:

Reproduce it

1. Clone this application: http://github.com/substack/pix
2. Add this script to it: https://gist.github.com/2640933

In (2) I added a layer of indirection which spawns server.js, once with .fork() and once with .spawn().

Here's a quick rundown of the process tree(s):

1. Just running node server.js

  server.js
   `-- worker.js
   `-- worker.js

1. Running node spawn.js

  spawn.js
    `-- server.js
          `-- worker.js
          `-- worker.js

So just that one level of indirection with .fork() breaks all piping of process.stdin.

@piscisaureus @isaacs @bnoordhuis You guys have any thoughts here? I'm stumped why this is happening, but I know it is.

[isaacs]

There are a few bugs inpix.

child_process.fork doesn't preserve the env by default, and server.js is spawning just 'node' rather than process.execPath, and not specifying a PATH, so it's failing with execvp(): No such file or directory.

However, this error isn't seen, because the stderr from the worker in server.js is not ever examined, and spawn doesn't inherit the output handles by default.

Pix's server.js doesn't examine the exit code in the 'exit' event listener, so this also obscures errors.

AFAICT, everything in node is operating as designed. However, it would be nice if the env was handled the same way by fork as it is by spawn.

[ghost]

I made a gist to demonstrate the issue more cleanly and to show that this is not a problem with the environment variables:
https://gist.github.com/2664487

The worker.js is getting run because working... gets printed but no 'data' events come through from spawn.js to worker.js like they should.

[rf]

After some analysis, I've concluded that I agree with @isaacs; everything in node is operating as designed. Because the environment isn't cleared before spawn.js spawns a worker.js, worker.js gets an environment with a NODE_CHANNEL_FD value. This value is passed to help setup the parent -> child communication circuitry. Since spawn.js was created with a call to child_process.fork(), it has this variable set.

This value then gets to the third process: worker.js. It sees the NODE_CHANNEL_FD environment variable and attempts to setup the communication circuitry, which, of course, it cannot, because it was in fact not created with a call to child_process.fork().

The code works as intended if we simply clear the environment in spawn.js:

var ps = spawn(process.execPath, ['worker.js' ], {env: {}});

It may, however, be reasonable to clear NODE_CHANNEL_FD when spawn()ing so that processes spawn()ed from a process which came from a fork() won't try to setup the communication channel.

[bnoordhuis]

What @russfrank said, the inherited NODE_CHANNEL_FD is the culprit. It's fixed in bd90717.