TypeError: Forked processes must have an IPC channel

[sandro-pasquali]

v.6.4.0
Darwin MacBook-Pro.local 14.5.0 Darwin Kernel Version 14.5.0: Tue Sep 1 21:23:09 PDT 2015; root:xnu-2782.50.1~1/RELEASE_X86_64 x86_64

I think this is my error, but maybe something to document?

After upgrading from 6.3 -> 6.4 fork will not accept the following:

fork('...', [], {
    stdio: [0,1,2] 
});

Requiring:

fork('...', [], {
    stdio: [0,1,2,'ipc']
});

Not setting stdio also works...

[cjihrig]

fork() didn't support a stdio option before. Now it does.

[sandro-pasquali]

Thanks. Would it be useful to update these docs to emphasize that? (right now the docs seem to imply that [0,1,2] is a valid setting, and that ipc is optional. Or maybe that's just me :)

https://nodejs.org/dist/latest-v6.x/docs/api/child_process.html#child_process_options_stdio

[cjihrig]

We don't currently have a good way to mark when things like that change the way that we do when a new method is added. However, I agree that it would be good to update the stdio section of https://nodejs.org/dist/latest-v6.x/docs/api/child_process.html#child_process_child_process_fork_modulepath_args_options to say that an 'ipc' entry is required. Note, the docs you linked to probably aren't the ideal place to say that, since this is fork() specific.

[cjihrig]

You might want to use https://nodejs.org/api/cluster.html#cluster_cluster_settings as a reference if you plan to make a PR.

[bchenSyd]

why the ipc fd is only required in fork? not in spawn?
what's the fundamental difference between fork and spawn? isn't fork a specific type of spawn where process name is slated to node?