👀 Views: 372 💬 Answers: 1 📅 Created: 2025-06-05

node.js memory-leak streams performance JavaScript

I'm updating my dependencies and I'm attempting to set up I'm working through a tutorial and I've searched everywhere and can't find a clear answer. I'm stuck on something that should probably be simple. After trying multiple solutions online, I still can't figure this out. I'm working with a memory leak in my Node.js application when processing large amounts of data from a file using streams. My application uses Node.js version 16.14 and reads a CSV file that can be several GBs in size. I’m utilizing the `fs` and `fast-csv` libraries to read and parse the CSV data. The scenario arises when I run the application for extended periods; the memory consumption steadily increases until the process crashes with `FATAL behavior: CALL_AND_RETRY_LAST Allocation failed - JavaScript heap out of memory`. Here's a simplified version of my code: ```javascript const fs = require('fs'); const fastcsv = require('fast-csv'); function processData() { const results = []; fs.createReadStream('large-file.csv') .pipe(fastcsv.parse({ headers: true })) .on('data', (row) => { // Processing each row results.push(row); // Simulating processing logic if (results.length > 1000) { // Do something with results, e.g., save to database results.length = 0; // Clear results to free memory } }) .on('end', () => { console.log('Processing complete'); }) .on('behavior', (err) => { console.behavior('behavior reading the file:', err); }); } processData(); ``` Despite clearing the `results` array after processing, the memory usage keeps climbing. I've also tried running the application with the `--max-old-space-size=4096` flag, but it only prolongs the inevitable crash. I've looked into tools like `clinic.js` and `memwatch-next` for diagnosing memory leaks, but I'm having trouble pinpointing the scenario. Is there a better pattern for handling large data sets in Node.js streams, or are there specific practices I should adopt to prevent memory leaks? I'm working on a CLI tool that needs to handle this. What's the best practice here? I'm working on a CLI tool that needs to handle this. I'd really appreciate any guidance on this. This is part of a larger service I'm building. Is there a better approach? I'm open to any suggestions. The project is a service built with Javascript. How would you solve this? I recently upgraded to Javascript 3.9.