From 9f7a5439dd5762e4bb2a35f796ea92b19d171d43 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Ben Noordhuis Date: Sun, 7 Feb 2016 23:15:03 +0100 Subject: [PATCH] doc: console is asynchronous unless it's a file Mea culpa, looks like I forgot to update console.markdown in commit dac1d38 ("doc: stdout/stderr can block when directed to file"). This commit rectifies that. Refs: https://github.com/nodejs/node/issues/5131 PR-URL: https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/5133 Reviewed-By: Brian White Reviewed-By: Evan Lucas --- doc/api/console.markdown | 17 ++++------------- 1 file changed, 4 insertions(+), 13 deletions(-) diff --git a/doc/api/console.markdown b/doc/api/console.markdown index 1b56862a89a474..823d167e5ae382 100644 --- a/doc/api/console.markdown +++ b/doc/api/console.markdown @@ -53,19 +53,10 @@ duplicate the browsers functionality exactly. ## Asynchronous vs Synchronous Consoles -The console functions are synchronous when the destination is a terminal or -a file (to avoid lost messages in case of premature exit) and asynchronous -when the destination is a pipe (to avoid blocking for long periods of time). - -In the following example, stdout is non-blocking while stderr is blocking: - -``` -$ node script.js 2> error.log | tee info.log -``` - -Typically, the distinction between blocking/non-blocking is not important -unless an application is logging significant amounts of data. High volume -logging *should* use a `Console` instance that writes to a pipe. +The console functions are asynchronous unless the destination is a file. +Disks are fast and operating systems normally employ write-back caching; +it should be a very rare occurrence indeed that a write blocks, but it +is possible. ## Class: Console