ffmpeg app using node occasionally crashes as file doesn't appear to be read correctly

Question

I have an simple Node application that allows me to pass an AWS S3 URL link to a file (in this case video files). It uses the FFMPEG library to read the video file and return data like codecs, duration, bitrate etc..

The script is called from PHP script which in turn send the data to the Node endpoint and passes the Amazon S3 URL to node. Sometimes for no obvious reasons the video file fails to return the expected values regarding container, codec, duration etc... and just returns '0'. But when I try the exact same file/request again it returns this data correctly e.g container:mp4

I'm not sure but I think the script somehow needs the createWriteStream to be closed but I cannot be sure, the problem is the issue I have found doesn't happen all the time but sporadically so its hard to get to the issue when its difficult to replicate it.

Any ideas?

router.post('/', async function(req, res) {
  const fileURL = new URL(req.body.file);
  var path = fileURL.pathname;
  path = 'tmp/'+path.substring(1);    // removes the initial / from the path

  let file = fs.createWriteStream(path);  // create the file locally
  const request = https.get(fileURL, function(response) {
    response.pipe(file);
  });
  
  // after file has saved
  file.on('finish', function () {
    var process = new ffmpeg(path);
    process.then(function (video) {
      let metadata = formatMetadata(video.metadata);

      res.send ({
        status: '200',
        data: metadata,
        errors: errors,
        response: 'success'
      });

    }, function (err) {
      console.warn('Error: ' + err);

      res.send ({
        status: '400',
        data: 'Something went wrong processing this video',
        response: 'fail',
      });
    });
  });

  file.on('error', function (err) {
    console.warn(err);
  });

});

function formatMetadata(metadata) {
  const data = {
    'video' : metadata.video,
    'audio' : metadata.audio,
    'duration' : metadata.duration
  };
  return data;
}

// Expected output

{"data":{"video":{"container":"mov","bitrate":400,"stream":0,"codec":"h264","resolution":{"w":1280,"h":720},"resolutionSquare":{"w":1280,"h":720},"aspect":{"x":16,"y":9,"string":"16:9","value":1.7777777777777777},"rotate":0,"fps":25,"pixelString":"1:1","pixel":1},"audio":{"codec":"aac","bitrate":"127","sample_rate":44100,"stream":0,"channels":{"raw":"stereo","value":2}},"duration":{"raw":"00:00:25.68","seconds":25}}

// Actual output

{"data":{"video":{"container":"","bitrate":0,"stream":0,"codec":"","resolution":{"w":0,"h":0},"resolutionSquare":{"w":0,"h":null},"aspect":{},"rotate":0,"fps":0,"pixelString":"","pixel":0},"audio":{"codec":"","bitrate":"","sample_rate":0,"stream":0,"channels":{"raw":"","value":""}},"duration":{"raw":"","seconds":0}}

Note - this happens sporadically

Answer 1

You are not accounting for a failed fetch from AWS. You should check the status code of the response before you move on to your pipe.

  const request = https.get(fileURL, function(response) {
    if(response.statusCode == 200) 
      response.pipe(file);
    else
      // Handle error case
  });