child_process._forkChild results in an abort

[zyscoder]

• Version: v12.16.0
• Platform: Linux vul337 4.15.0-91-generic new design of error handling #92-Ubuntu SMP Fri Feb 28 11:09:48 UTC 2020 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
• Subsystem: child_process

What steps will reproduce the bug?

Save the following code in a file:

// temp.js
try { 
    require('child_process')._forkChild(3); 
} catch (e) { }

then run the code:

path/to/node temp.js

Note that the try-catch block cannot be removed, otherwise the abort would not be triggered.
And, only some parameter for '_forkChild' can trigger an abort. In my practice, 3, 6, 8, and 9 do.

How often does it reproduce? Is there a required condition?

Saving the code in a file and running it by passing as command line parameter can trigger this abort, but directly running the code in an interactive way would not.

What is the expected behavior?

If any error occurs, an exception or other similar error-reporting stuff should be thrown. There is no reason to abort for the whole node process.

What do you see instead?

> path/to/node temp.js                                                      
[1]    18843 abort      path/to/node temp.js

Additional information

[rickyes]

I checked child_process. _forkChild is not a public API, only for internal use.

[himself65]

I agree with @rickyes, I think it hasn't good benefits to check value for an unpublic API cause it will decrease the performance. and our node.js core wouldn't pass the invalid value for these API