How to defer stream read invocation

Question

I'm still trying to grok my way through streams in general. I have been able to stream a large file using multiparty from within form.on('part'). But I need to defer the invocation and resolve the stream before it's read. I have tried PassThrough, through. through2, but have gotten different results, which it mainly hangs, and I can't figure out what to do, nor steps to debug. I'm open to all alternatives. Thanks for all insights.

import multiparty from 'multiparty'
import {
  PassThrough
} from 'stream';
import through from 'through'
import through2 from 'through2'

export function promisedMultiparty(req) {
  return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {

    const form = new multiparty.Form()
    const form_files = []
    let q_str = ''

    form.on('field', (fieldname, value) => {
      if (value) q_str = appendQStr(fieldname, value, q_str)
    })

    form.on('part', async (part) => {
      if (part.filename) {

        const pass1 = new PassThrough() // this hangs at 10% 

        const pass2 = through(function write(data) { // this hangs from the beginning
            this.queue(data)
          },
          function end() {
            this.queue(null)
          })

        const pass3 = through2() // this hangs at 10%

        /* 
            // This way works for large files, but I want to defer 
            // invocation

            const form_data = new FormData()
            form_data.append(savepath, part, {
              filename,
            })

            const r = request.post(url, {
              headers: {
                'transfer-encoding': 'chunked'
              }
            }, responseCallback(resolve))
            r._form = form

        */

        form_files.push({
          part: part.pipe(pass1),
          // part: part.pipe(pass2),
          // part: part.pipe(pass3),
        })

      } else {
        part.resume()
      }
    })

    form.on('close', () => {
      resolve({
        fields: qs.parse(q_str),
        forms: form_files,
      })
    })

    form.parse(req)
  })
}

p.s. For sure the title could be better, if someone could use the proper terms please. Thanks.

Answer 1

I believe this is because you are not using through2 correctly - i.e. not actually emptying the buffer once it's full (that's why it hangs at 10% on bigger files, but works on smaller ones).

I believe an implementation like this should do it:

const pass2 = through2(function(chunk, encoding, next) {

   // do something with the data


   // Use this only if you want to send the data further to another stream reader 
   // Note - From your implementation you don't seem to need it
   // this.push(data)

   // This is what tells through2 it's ready to empty the 
   //  buffer and read more data
   next();
})