Node.js setInterval() stops executing after 25 days

Question

In my Node.js application, I use setInterval() to run a specific function every 1 hour. The function is executed properly for about 25 days, then the timer stops firing.

25 days seems awfully close to Node.js's TIMEOUT_MAX (2^31 milliseconds ≈ 25 days), but I don't really see why setInterval() should stop executing after that time.

Update:

I think this may have been caused by the following bug in Node.js: setInterval callback function unexpected halt #22149

Answer 1

It seems the bug (#22149) has been fixed in Node.js 10.9.0.

It may be also worth noting that this bug seems to be influencing both setInterval() and setTimeout() (as reported here), so the workaround with setTimeout() in the callback function wouldn't work.

Answer 2

After reading the issue in github, I think they will fix it in the next release. If you need to work around before that, you can try recursive timeout instead. Checkout my code:

function doSomething() {
    console.log('test');
}

function doSomethingInterval() {
   doSomething();
   setTimeout(doSomethingInterval, 1000);
}

doSomethingInterval();

Answer 3

It's a known bug. Your easiest workaround is to use setTimeout instead, and then in your callback function call another setTimeout.