Uncaught TypeError: this.timer.unref is not a function

[xavier-breuil]

Hello,

I have some issue feeding the dog.
I just paste the example given and get the following error then after one seconds the dog goes to sleep (we can see the log in the console):

Uncaught TypeError: this.timer.unref is not a function
at Watchdog.startTimer (watchdog.js:102)
at Watchdog.feed (watchdog.js:194)
at Module../src/hello_world/hello_world.js (hello_world.js:19)
at webpack_require (bootstrap:19)
at Module../src/app.js (app.js:1)
at webpack_require (bootstrap:19)
at ./config/env_development.json.module.exports.name (bootstrap:83)
at bootstrap:83

I just started a project with electron. Basically I cloned the electron boilerplate (https://github.com/szwacz/electron-boilerplate), install watchdog, copy and paste the example of this repos and launched it.

My configuration is:

• node: 9.11.1
• electron: 1.7.9

Do you have any idea where this may come from?

Thank you

[huan]

It should work because the CI is passing.

You might run into this issue jestjs/jest#1909 and please check your environment in a pure node like this: discordjs/RPC#22

[xavier-breuil]

Ok. Thank you for your advice. It of course works in pure node, but I reckon somehow the setTimeout function in the scope of my app is not the native one (since it doesn't have the unref method). So far I couldn't find a way to force it.
I guess I'll either clone your project and force setTimeout to the native node implementation inside of your code or use a homemade solution to fulfill my needs.

[thiago-sylvain]

I confirm I have the same problem than @xavier-breuil.
Node: 9.11.2
Electron: 1.7.9
Watchdog: 0.8.17

[davelnewton]

This is also an issue when running under Electron/React when the watchdog timer(s) are in an imported library.

[huan]

@davelnewton thanks for report that.

Could you please provide a minimum runnable code to show your problem?

I'd like to fix this if I can understand the situation we are facing to.

[davelnewton]

Could you please provide a minimum runnable code to show your problem?

Not trivially, but I was using it in a module that was included in an Electron (via electron-forge) project. The solution is as @xavier-breuil states: it's using the standard browser-ish timers which do not have the unref() function.

I removed the library and did essentially the same thing as the library using the NodeJS timers module. For the library to work across environments it'd need to do a browser-ish check, or if it's intended to be used only in a NodeJS environment it'd need to use the timers module from NodeJS.

[huan]

Should be fixed with watchdog@0.8.21 and above.

Thank you very much for the reporting!