The minipass npm package is a small, simple stream.PassThrough class. It is designed to be a minimal implementation of a streaming PassThrough, which is a type of Duplex stream that reads from a readable source and writes to a writable destination with minimal overhead. It is useful for cases where you want to collect stream data, transform it, or simply pass it through unmodified.
Basic Stream Collection
This feature allows you to collect data from a stream. The 'data' event is emitted whenever the stream has data available. The 'write' method is used to send data into the stream, and 'end' is used to signal that no more data will be written.
const MiniPass = require('minipass')
const stream = new MiniPass()
stream.on('data', chunk => {
console.log('Got some data:', chunk.toString())
})
stream.write('hello')
stream.end('world')Piping Data
This feature demonstrates how to pipe data from a MiniPass stream to another writable stream. In this example, data is piped to a file stream, which writes the data to 'output.txt'.
const MiniPass = require('minipass')
const fs = require('fs')
const stream = new MiniPass()
const writable = fs.createWriteStream('output.txt')
stream.pipe(writable)
stream.write('hello')
stream.end('world')Transforming Stream Data
This feature shows how to extend MiniPass to create a custom transform stream. In this example, an Uppercase class is created that converts all incoming data to uppercase before passing it through.
const MiniPass = require('minipass')
class Uppercase extends MiniPass {
write (chunk, encoding, callback) {
super.write(chunk.toString().toUpperCase(), encoding, callback)
}
}
const ucStream = new Uppercase()
ucStream.on('data', chunk => {
console.log(chunk.toString())
})
ucStream.write('hello')
ucStream.end('world')Through2 is a tiny wrapper around Node streams.Transform, making it easy to create transform streams. It is similar to minipass in that it provides a simple way to handle stream data, but it has a slightly different API and additional convenience methods.
Pumpify combines an array of streams into a single duplex stream. It is similar to minipass in that it deals with stream data, but it focuses on combining streams rather than simply passing data through.
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 also be set by doing stream.objectMode = true, or by
writing any non-string/non-buffer data. objectMode cannot be set to
false once it is set.
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:
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.
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:
const Minipass = require('minipass')
const stream = new Minipass({ async: true })
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
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.
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:
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')
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
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.
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.
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:
end When AskedOne 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.
error When AskedThe 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.
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.
It's a stream! Use it like a stream and it'll most likely do what you want.
const Minipass = require('minipass')
const mp = new Minipass(options) // optional: { encoding, objectMode }
mp.write('foo')
mp.pipe(someOtherStream)
mp.end('bar')
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.Implements the user-facing portions of Node.js's Readable and Writable
streams.
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.setEncoding(encoding) - Set the encoding for data coming of the stream.
This can only be done once.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.bufferLength Read-only. Total number of bytes buffered, or in the case
of objectMode, the total number of objects.encoding The encoding that has been set. (Setting this is equivalent
to calling setEncoding(enc) and has the same prohibition against
setting multiple times.)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.buffer A yallist linked list of chunks written
to the stream that have not yet been emitted. (It's probably a bad idea
to mess with this.)pipes A yallist linked list of streams that
this stream is piping into. (It's probably a bad idea to mess with
this.)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. Once set
to true, it cannot be set to false.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.)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.)Here are some examples of things you can do with Minipass streams.
mp.promise().then(() => {
// stream is finished
}, er => {
// stream emitted an error
})
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()
})
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.
})
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`
console.log()s everything written into itclass 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)
// 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)
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)
} else {
return super.emit(ev, ...args)
}
}
}
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)
}
}
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()
}
}
FAQs
minimal implementation of a PassThrough stream
We found that minipass demonstrated a healthy version release cadence and project activity because the last version was released less than a year ago. It has 1 open source maintainer collaborating on the project.
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