Express js prevent GET /favicon.ico

Question

In every request, my server is receiving GET request to /favicon.ico, even when it\'s REST api that not include html file. Why is this happening and how can I prevent this r

Answer 1

my preferred method is middleware

put this somewhere:

function ignoreFavicon(req, res, next) {
  if (req.originalUrl.includes('favicon.ico')) {
    res.status(204).end()
  }
  next();
}

then:

app.use(ignoreFavicon);

Answer 2

Browsers will by default try to request /favicon.ico from the root of a hostname, in order to show an icon in the browser tab.

If you want to avoid this request returning a 404, you can either:

• Supply a favicon.ico file that is available at the root of your site.
• Use a module such as serve-favicon to point requests to a specific file.

• Catch the favicon.ico request and send a 204 No Content status:

  app.get('/favicon.ico', (req, res) => res.status(204));

Answer 3

In Case of web apps, we should supply a favicon.ico from static resources either serving directly via vanilla or by making use of express middleware serve-favicon

In the case of API apps, we should supply 204 (no content) status code which will result in a success roundtrip.

We can make use of sendStatus() method to respond with status code 204 (no content)

app.get('/favicon.ico', function(req, res) { 
    res.sendStatus(204); 
});

if you are using status(204) make sure to use end() as well. Otherwise, the request will remain in pending status.

app.get('/favicon.ico', function(req, res) { 
    res.status(204);
    res.end();    
});

Answer 4

I agree with @Blair Anderson that middleware is the best course of action here but 204 should not return a body. Also, you may want to catch all favicon request e.g.: https://example.com/some/path/favicon.ico. In which case something like this works best:

app.use( function(req, res, next) {

  if (req.originalUrl && req.originalUrl.split("/").pop() === 'favicon.ico') {
    return res.sendStatus(204);
  }

  return next();

});