minipass

A very minimal implementation of a PassThrough
stream

It's very
fast
for objects, strings, and buffers.

Supports pipe()ing (including multi-pipe() and backpressure
transmission), buffering data until either a data event handler
or pipe() is added (so you don't lose the first chunk), and
most other cases where PassThrough is a good idea.

There is a read() method, but it's much more efficient to
consume data from this stream via 'data' events or by calling
pipe() into some other stream. Calling read() requires the
buffer to be flattened in some cases, which requires copying
memory.

If you set objectMode: true in the options, then whatever is
written will be emitted. Otherwise, it'll do a minimal amount of
Buffer copying to ensure proper Streams semantics when read(n)
is called.

objectMode can only be set at instantiation. Attempting to
write something other than a String or Buffer without having set
objectMode in the options will throw an error.

This is not a through or through2 stream. It doesn't
transform the data, it just passes it right through. If you want
to transform the data, extend the class, and override the
write() method. Once you're done transforming the data however
you want, call super.write() with the transform output.

For some examples of streams that extend Minipass in various
ways, check out:

• minizlib
• fs-minipass
• tar
• minipass-collect
• minipass-flush
• minipass-pipeline
• tap
• tap-parser
• treport
• minipass-fetch
• pacote
• make-fetch-happen
• cacache
• ssri
• npm-registry-fetch
• minipass-json-stream
• minipass-sized

Usage in TypeScript

The Minipass class takes three type template definitions:

• RType the type being read, which defaults to Buffer. If
  RType is string, then the constructor must get an options
  object specifying either an encoding or objectMode: true.
  If it's anything other than string or Buffer, then it
  must get an options object specifying objectMode: true.
• WType the type being written. If RType is Buffer or
  string, then this defaults to ContiguousData (Buffer,
  string, ArrayBuffer, or ArrayBufferView). Otherwise, it
  defaults to RType.
• Events type mapping event names to the arguments emitted
  with that event, which extends Minipass.Events.

To declare types for custom events in subclasses, extend the
third parameter with your own event signatures. For example:

 import { Minipass } from 'minipass'

// a NDJSON stream that emits 'jsonError' when it can't stringify
export interface Events extends Minipass.Events {
  jsonError: [e: Error]
}

export class NDJSONStream extends Minipass<string, any, Events> {
  constructor() {
    super({ objectMode: true })
  }

  // data is type `any` because that's WType
  write(data, encoding, cb) {
    try {
      const json = JSON.stringify(data)
      return super.write(json + '\n', encoding, cb)
    } catch (er) {
      if (!er instanceof Error) {
        er = Object.assign(new Error('json stringify failed'), {
          cause: er,
        })
      }
      // trying to emit with something OTHER than an error will
      // fail, because we declared the event arguments type.
      this.emit('jsonError', er)
    }
  }
}

const s = new NDJSONStream()
s.on('jsonError', e => {
  // here, TS knows that e is an Error
})

Emitting/handling events that aren't declared in this way is
fine, but the arguments will be typed as unknown.

Differences from Node.js Streams

There are several things that make Minipass streams different
from (and in some ways superior to) Node.js core streams.

Please read these caveats if you are familiar with node-core
streams and intend to use Minipass streams in your programs.

You can avoid most of these differences entirely (for a very
small performance penalty) by setting {async: true} in the
constructor options.

Timing

Minipass streams are designed to support synchronous use-cases.
Thus, data is emitted as soon as it is available, always. It is
buffered until read, but no longer. Another way to look at it is
that Minipass streams are exactly as synchronous as the logic
that writes into them.

This can be surprising if your code relies on
PassThrough.write() always providing data on the next tick
rather than the current one, or being able to call resume() and
not have the entire buffer disappear immediately.

However, without this synchronicity guarantee, there would be no
way for Minipass to achieve the speeds it does, or support the
synchronous use cases that it does. Simply put, waiting takes
time.

This non-deferring approach makes Minipass streams much easier to
reason about, especially in the context of Promises and other
flow-control mechanisms.

Example:

 // hybrid module, either works
import { Minipass } from 'minipass'
// or:
const { Minipass } = require('minipass')

const stream = new Minipass()
stream.on('data', () => console.log('data event'))
console.log('before write')
stream.write('hello')
console.log('after write')
// output:
// before write
// data event
// after write

Exception: Async Opt-In

If you wish to have a Minipass stream with behavior that more
closely mimics Node.js core streams, you can set the stream in
async mode either by setting async: true in the constructor
options, or by setting stream.async = true later on.

 // hybrid module, either works
import { Minipass } from 'minipass'
// or:
const { Minipass } = require('minipass')

const asyncStream = new Minipass({ async: true })
asyncStream.on('data', () => console.log('data event'))
console.log('before write')
asyncStream.write('hello')
console.log('after write')
// output:
// before write
// after write
// data event <-- this is deferred until the next tick

Switching out of async mode is unsafe, as it could cause data
corruption, and so is not enabled. Example:

 import { Minipass } from 'minipass'
const stream = new Minipass({ encoding: 'utf8' })
stream.on('data', chunk => console.log(chunk))
stream.async = true
console.log('before writes')
stream.write('hello')
setStreamSyncAgainSomehow(stream) // <-- this doesn't actually exist!
stream.write('world')
console.log('after writes')
// hypothetical output would be:
// before writes
// world
// after writes
// hello
// NOT GOOD!

To avoid this problem, once set into async mode, any attempt to
make the stream sync again will be ignored.

 const { Minipass } = require('minipass')
const stream = new Minipass({ encoding: 'utf8' })
stream.on('data', chunk => console.log(chunk))
stream.async = true
console.log('before writes')
stream.write('hello')
stream.async = false // <-- no-op, stream already async
stream.write('world')
console.log('after writes')
// actual output:
// before writes
// after writes
// hello
// world

No High/Low Water Marks

Node.js core streams will optimistically fill up a buffer,
returning true on all writes until the limit is hit, even if
the data has nowhere to go. Then, they will not attempt to draw
more data in until the buffer size dips below a minimum value.

Minipass streams are much simpler. The write() method will
return true if the data has somewhere to go (which is to say,
given the timing guarantees, that the data is already there by
the time write() returns).

If the data has nowhere to go, then write() returns false, and
the data sits in a buffer, to be drained out immediately as soon
as anyone consumes it.

Since nothing is ever buffered unnecessarily, there is much less
copying data, and less bookkeeping about buffer capacity levels.

Hazards of Buffering (or: Why Minipass Is So Fast)

Since data written to a Minipass stream is immediately written
all the way through the pipeline, and write() always returns
true/false based on whether the data was fully flushed,
backpressure is communicated immediately to the upstream caller.
This minimizes buffering.

Consider this case:

 const { PassThrough } = require('stream')
const p1 = new PassThrough({ highWaterMark: 1024 })
const p2 = new PassThrough({ highWaterMark: 1024 })
const p3 = new PassThrough({ highWaterMark: 1024 })
const p4 = new PassThrough({ highWaterMark: 1024 })

p1.pipe(p2).pipe(p3).pipe(p4)
p4.on('data', () => console.log('made it through'))

// this returns false and buffers, then writes to p2 on next tick (1)
// p2 returns false and buffers, pausing p1, then writes to p3 on next tick (2)
// p3 returns false and buffers, pausing p2, then writes to p4 on next tick (3)
// p4 returns false and buffers, pausing p3, then emits 'data' and 'drain'
// on next tick (4)
// p3 sees p4's 'drain' event, and calls resume(), emitting 'resume' and
// 'drain' on next tick (5)
// p2 sees p3's 'drain', calls resume(), emits 'resume' and 'drain' on next tick (6)
// p1 sees p2's 'drain', calls resume(), emits 'resume' and 'drain' on next
// tick (7)

p1.write(Buffer.alloc(2048)) // returns false

Along the way, the data was buffered and deferred at each stage,
and multiple event deferrals happened, for an unblocked pipeline
where it was perfectly safe to write all the way through!

Furthermore, setting a highWaterMark of 1024 might lead
someone reading the code to think an advisory maximum of 1KiB is
being set for the pipeline. However, the actual advisory
buffering level is the sum of highWaterMark values, since
each one has its own bucket.

Consider the Minipass case:

 const m1 = new Minipass()
const m2 = new Minipass()
const m3 = new Minipass()
const m4 = new Minipass()

m1.pipe(m2).pipe(m3).pipe(m4)
m4.on('data', () => console.log('made it through'))

// m1 is flowing, so it writes the data to m2 immediately
// m2 is flowing, so it writes the data to m3 immediately
// m3 is flowing, so it writes the data to m4 immediately
// m4 is flowing, so it fires the 'data' event immediately, returns true
// m4's write returned true, so m3 is still flowing, returns true
// m3's write returned true, so m2 is still flowing, returns true
// m2's write returned true, so m1 is still flowing, returns true
// No event deferrals or buffering along the way!

m1.write(Buffer.alloc(2048)) // returns true

It is extremely unlikely that you don't want to buffer any data
written, or ever buffer data that can be flushed all the way
through. Neither node-core streams nor Minipass ever fail to
buffer written data, but node-core streams do a lot of
unnecessary buffering and pausing.

As always, the faster implementation is the one that does less
stuff and waits less time to do it.

Immediately emit end for empty streams (when not paused)

If a stream is not paused, and end() is called before writing
any data into it, then it will emit end immediately.

If you have logic that occurs on the end event which you don't
want to potentially happen immediately (for example, closing file
descriptors, moving on to the next entry in an archive parse
stream, etc.) then be sure to call stream.pause() on creation,
and then stream.resume() once you are ready to respond to the
end event.

However, this is usually not a problem because:

Emit end When Asked

One hazard of immediately emitting 'end' is that you may not
yet have had a chance to add a listener. In order to avoid this
hazard, Minipass streams safely re-emit the 'end' event if a
new listener is added after 'end' has been emitted.

Ie, if you do stream.on('end', someFunction), and the stream
has already emitted end, then it will call the handler right
away. (You can think of this somewhat like attaching a new
.then(fn) to a previously-resolved Promise.)

To prevent calling handlers multiple times who would not expect
multiple ends to occur, all listeners are removed from the
'end' event whenever it is emitted.

Emit error When Asked

The most recent error object passed to the 'error' event is
stored on the stream. If a new 'error' event handler is added,
and an error was previously emitted, then the event handler will
be called immediately (or on process.nextTick in the case of
async streams).

This makes it much more difficult to end up trying to interact
with a broken stream, if the error handler is added after an
error was previously emitted.

Impact of "immediate flow" on Tee-streams

A "tee stream" is a stream piping to multiple destinations:

 const tee = new Minipass()
t.pipe(dest1)
t.pipe(dest2)
t.write('foo') // goes to both destinations

Since Minipass streams immediately process any pending data
through the pipeline when a new pipe destination is added, this
can have surprising effects, especially when a stream comes in
from some other function and may or may not have data in its
buffer.

 // WARNING! WILL LOSE DATA!
const src = new Minipass()
src.write('foo')
src.pipe(dest1) // 'foo' chunk flows to dest1 immediately, and is gone
src.pipe(dest2) // gets nothing!

One solution is to create a dedicated tee-stream junction that
pipes to both locations, and then pipe to that instead.

 // Safe example: tee to both places
const src = new Minipass()
src.write('foo')
const tee = new Minipass()
tee.pipe(dest1)
tee.pipe(dest2)
src.pipe(tee) // tee gets 'foo', pipes to both locations

The same caveat applies to on('data') event listeners. The
first one added will immediately receive all of the data,
leaving nothing for the second:

 // WARNING! WILL LOSE DATA!
const src = new Minipass()
src.write('foo')
src.on('data', handler1) // receives 'foo' right away
src.on('data', handler2) // nothing to see here!

Using a dedicated tee-stream can be used in this case as well:

 // Safe example: tee to both data handlers
const src = new Minipass()
src.write('foo')
const tee = new Minipass()
tee.on('data', handler1)
tee.on('data', handler2)
src.pipe(tee)

All of the hazards in this section are avoided by setting { async: true } in the Minipass constructor, or by setting
stream.async = true afterwards. Note that this does add some
overhead, so should only be done in cases where you are willing
to lose a bit of performance in order to avoid having to refactor
program logic.

USAGE

It's a stream! Use it like a stream and it'll most likely do what
you want.

 import { Minipass } from 'minipass'
const mp = new Minipass(options) // options is optional
mp.write('foo')
mp.pipe(someOtherStream)
mp.end('bar')

OPTIONS

• encoding How would you like the data coming out of the
  stream to be encoded? Accepts any values that can be passed to
  Buffer.toString().
• objectMode Emit data exactly as it comes in. This will be
  flipped on by default if you write() something other than a
  string or Buffer at any point. Setting objectMode: true will
  prevent setting any encoding value.
• async Defaults to false. Set to true to defer data
  emission until next tick. This reduces performance slightly,
  but makes Minipass streams use timing behavior closer to Node
  core streams. See Timing for more details.
• signal An AbortSignal that will cause the stream to unhook
  itself from everything and become as inert as possible. Note
  that providing a signal parameter will make 'error' events
  no longer throw if they are unhandled, but they will still be
  emitted to handlers if any are attached.

API

Implements the user-facing portions of Node.js's Readable and
Writable streams.

Methods

• write(chunk, [encoding], [callback]) - Put data in. (Note
  that, in the base Minipass class, the same data will come out.)
  Returns false if the stream will buffer the next write, or
  true if it's still in "flowing" mode.
• end([chunk, [encoding]], [callback]) - Signal that you have
  no more data to write. This will queue an end event to be
  fired when all the data has been consumed.
• pause() - No more data for a while, please. This also
  prevents end from being emitted for empty streams until the
  stream is resumed.
• resume() - Resume the stream. If there's data in the buffer,
  it is all discarded. Any buffered events are immediately
  emitted.
• pipe(dest) - Send all output to the stream provided. When
  data is emitted, it is immediately written to any and all pipe
  destinations. (Or written on next tick in async mode.)
• unpipe(dest) - Stop piping to the destination stream. This is
  immediate, meaning that any asynchronously queued data will
  not make it to the destination when running in async mode.
  • options.end - Boolean, end the destination stream when the
    source stream ends. Default true.
  • options.proxyErrors - Boolean, proxy error events from
    the source stream to the destination stream. Note that errors
    are not proxied after the pipeline terminates, either due
    to the source emitting 'end' or manually unpiping with
    src.unpipe(dest). Default false.
• on(ev, fn), emit(ev, fn) - Minipass streams are
  EventEmitters. Some events are given special treatment,
  however. (See below under "events".)
• promise() - Returns a Promise that resolves when the stream
  emits end, or rejects if the stream emits error.
• collect() - Return a Promise that resolves on end with an
  array containing each chunk of data that was emitted, or
  rejects if the stream emits error. Note that this consumes
  the stream data.
• concat() - Same as collect(), but concatenates the data
  into a single Buffer object. Will reject the returned promise
  if the stream is in objectMode, or if it goes into objectMode
  by the end of the data.
• read(n) - Consume n bytes of data out of the buffer. If n
  is not provided, then consume all of it. If n bytes are not
  available, then it returns null. Note consuming streams in
  this way is less efficient, and can lead to unnecessary Buffer
  copying.
• destroy([er]) - Destroy the stream. If an error is provided,
  then an 'error' event is emitted. If the stream has a
  close() method, and has not emitted a 'close' event yet,
  then stream.close() will be called. Any Promises returned by
  .promise(), .collect() or .concat() will be rejected.
  After being destroyed, writing to the stream will emit an
  error. No more data will be emitted if the stream is destroyed,
  even if it was previously buffered.

Properties

• bufferLength Read-only. Total number of bytes buffered, or in
  the case of objectMode, the total number of objects.
• encoding Read-only. The encoding that has been set.
• flowing Read-only. Boolean indicating whether a chunk written
  to the stream will be immediately emitted.
• emittedEnd Read-only. Boolean indicating whether the end-ish
  events (ie, end, prefinish, finish) have been emitted.
  Note that listening on any end-ish event will immediateyl
  re-emit it if it has already been emitted.
• writable Whether the stream is writable. Default true. Set
  to false when end()
• readable Whether the stream is readable. Default true.
• pipes An array of Pipe objects referencing streams that this
  stream is piping into.
• destroyed A getter that indicates whether the stream was
  destroyed.
• paused True if the stream has been explicitly paused,
  otherwise false.
• objectMode Indicates whether the stream is in objectMode.
• aborted Readonly property set when the AbortSignal
  dispatches an abort event.

Events

• data Emitted when there's data to read. Argument is the data
  to read. This is never emitted while not flowing. If a listener
  is attached, that will resume the stream.
• end Emitted when there's no more data to read. This will be
  emitted immediately for empty streams when end() is called.
  If a listener is attached, and end was already emitted, then
  it will be emitted again. All listeners are removed when end
  is emitted.
• prefinish An end-ish event that follows the same logic as
  end and is emitted in the same conditions where end is
  emitted. Emitted after 'end'.
• finish An end-ish event that follows the same logic as end
  and is emitted in the same conditions where end is emitted.
  Emitted after 'prefinish'.
• close An indication that an underlying resource has been
  released. Minipass does not emit this event, but will defer it
  until after end has been emitted, since it throws off some
  stream libraries otherwise.
• drain Emitted when the internal buffer empties, and it is
  again suitable to write() into the stream.
• readable Emitted when data is buffered and ready to be read
  by a consumer.
• resume Emitted when stream changes state from buffering to
  flowing mode. (Ie, when resume is called, pipe is called,
  or a data event listener is added.)

Static Methods

• Minipass.isStream(stream) Returns true if the argument is a
  stream, and false otherwise. To be considered a stream, the
  object must be either an instance of Minipass, or an
  EventEmitter that has either a pipe() method, or both
  write() and end() methods. (Pretty much any stream in
  node-land will return true for this.)

EXAMPLES

Here are some examples of things you can do with Minipass
streams.

simple "are you done yet" promise

 mp.promise().then(
  () => {
    // stream is finished
  },
  er => {
    // stream emitted an error
  }
)

collecting

 mp.collect().then(all => {
  // all is an array of all the data emitted
  // encoding is supported in this case, so
  // so the result will be a collection of strings if
  // an encoding is specified, or buffers/objects if not.
  //
  // In an async function, you may do
  // const data = await stream.collect()
})

collecting into a single blob

This is a bit slower because it concatenates the data into one
chunk for you, but if you're going to do it yourself anyway, it's
convenient this way:

 mp.concat().then(onebigchunk => {
  // onebigchunk is a string if the stream
  // had an encoding set, or a buffer otherwise.
})

iteration

You can iterate over streams synchronously or asynchronously in
platforms that support it.

Synchronous iteration will end when the currently available data
is consumed, even if the end event has not been reached. In
string and buffer mode, the data is concatenated, so unless
multiple writes are occurring in the same tick as the read(),
sync iteration loops will generally only have a single iteration.

To consume chunks in this way exactly as they have been written,
with no flattening, create the stream with the { objectMode: true } option.

 const mp = new Minipass({ objectMode: true })
mp.write('a')
mp.write('b')
for (let letter of mp) {
  console.log(letter) // a, b
}
mp.write('c')
mp.write('d')
for (let letter of mp) {
  console.log(letter) // c, d
}
mp.write('e')
mp.end()
for (let letter of mp) {
  console.log(letter) // e
}
for (let letter of mp) {
  console.log(letter) // nothing
}

Asynchronous iteration will continue until the end event is reached,
consuming all of the data.

 const mp = new Minipass({ encoding: 'utf8' })

// some source of some data
let i = 5
const inter = setInterval(() => {
  if (i-- > 0) mp.write(Buffer.from('foo\n', 'utf8'))
  else {
    mp.end()
    clearInterval(inter)
  }
}, 100)

// consume the data with asynchronous iteration
async function consume() {
  for await (let chunk of mp) {
    console.log(chunk)
  }
  return 'ok'
}

consume().then(res => console.log(res))
// logs `foo\n` 5 times, and then `ok`

subclass that console.log()s everything written into it

 class Logger extends Minipass {
  write(chunk, encoding, callback) {
    console.log('WRITE', chunk, encoding)
    return super.write(chunk, encoding, callback)
  }
  end(chunk, encoding, callback) {
    console.log('END', chunk, encoding)
    return super.end(chunk, encoding, callback)
  }
}

someSource.pipe(new Logger()).pipe(someDest)

same thing, but using an inline anonymous class

 // js classes are fun
someSource
  .pipe(
    new (class extends Minipass {
      emit(ev, ...data) {
        // let's also log events, because debugging some weird thing
        console.log('EMIT', ev)
        return super.emit(ev, ...data)
      }
      write(chunk, encoding, callback) {
        console.log('WRITE', chunk, encoding)
        return super.write(chunk, encoding, callback)
      }
      end(chunk, encoding, callback) {
        console.log('END', chunk, encoding)
        return super.end(chunk, encoding, callback)
      }
    })()
  )
  .pipe(someDest)

subclass that defers 'end' for some reason

 class SlowEnd extends Minipass {
  emit(ev, ...args) {
    if (ev === 'end') {
      console.log('going to end, hold on a sec')
      setTimeout(() => {
        console.log('ok, ready to end now')
        super.emit('end', ...args)
      }, 100)
      return true
    } else {
      return super.emit(ev, ...args)
    }
  }
}

transform that creates newline-delimited JSON

 class NDJSONEncode extends Minipass {
  write(obj, cb) {
    try {
      // JSON.stringify can throw, emit an error on that
      return super.write(JSON.stringify(obj) + '\n', 'utf8', cb)
    } catch (er) {
      this.emit('error', er)
    }
  }
  end(obj, cb) {
    if (typeof obj === 'function') {
      cb = obj
      obj = undefined
    }
    if (obj !== undefined) {
      this.write(obj)
    }
    return super.end(cb)
  }
}

transform that parses newline-delimited JSON

 class NDJSONDecode extends Minipass {
  constructor(options) {
    // always be in object mode, as far as Minipass is concerned
    super({ objectMode: true })
    this._jsonBuffer = ''
  }
  write(chunk, encoding, cb) {
    if (
      typeof chunk === 'string' &&
      typeof encoding === 'string' &&
      encoding !== 'utf8'
    ) {
      chunk = Buffer.from(chunk, encoding).toString()
    } else if (Buffer.isBuffer(chunk)) {
      chunk = chunk.toString()
    }
    if (typeof encoding === 'function') {
      cb = encoding
    }
    const jsonData = (this._jsonBuffer + chunk).split('\n')
    this._jsonBuffer = jsonData.pop()
    for (let i = 0; i < jsonData.length; i++) {
      try {
        // JSON.parse can throw, emit an error on that
        super.write(JSON.parse(jsonData[i]))
      } catch (er) {
        this.emit('error', er)
        continue
      }
    }
    if (cb) cb()
  }
}