Ionic Server doesn’t shutdown gracefully using Cordova

[bubbsi]

Description:
I have to build an ionic cordova app. So I prepared my macOS with all needed utilities. First I have to create the app on the browser platform. Therefore I start the process with “ionic cordova run browser”. After testing I just want to shutdown the server with crtl+c, but even a node process will be left. So every time I would have to kill the process using the command line tool “kill”. It isn’t really comfortable.

I found out if I run only the command “cordova run browser” without an ionic build the server is shutting down correctly. The same thing, if I run “ionic serve” without using cordova

My ionic info:

cli packages: (/usr/local/lib/node_modules)
@ionic/cli-utils : 1.19.2
ionic (Ionic CLI) : 3.20.0

global packages:
cordova (Cordova CLI) : 8.0.0

local packages:
@ionic/app-scripts : 3.1.8
Cordova Platforms : browser 5.0.3
Ionic Framework : ionic-angular 3.9.2

System:
ios-deploy : 1.9.1
Node : v8.10.0
npm : 5.6.0
OS : macOS High Sierra
Xcode : Xcode 9.2 Build version 9C40b

Environment Variables:
ANDROID_HOME : not set

Misc:
backend : legacy

[imhoffd]

Related: #3022

@bubbsi Can you run pgrep -lf ionic and show the output?

[marxide]

I also have this issue. When I use ionic cordova run browser, it builds my project and starts a node server on port 8000. When I kill the server with Ctrl+C, the node server doesn't stop. I have to stop it manually with kill.

$ ionic cordova run browser
Running app-scripts build: --platform browser --target cordova

... (build output)

> cordova run browser
startPage = index.html
Static file server running @ http://localhost:8000/index.html
CTRL + C to shut down

...

$ pgrep -lf ionic
1621 ionic MACHINE_OS=x86_64_Darwin
1622 ionic MACHINE_OS=x86_64_Darwin TERM_PROGRAM=iTerm.app

$ ps aux | grep node
andrew            1641   0.0  0.4  3184728  61048 s000  S+    9:38am   0:01.29 node /path/to/project/node_modules/.bin/cordova run browser

$ lsof -i :8000
COMMAND  PID   USER   FD   TYPE             DEVICE SIZE/OFF NODE NAME
node    1641 andrew   11u  IPv6 0x5460f93470ec8a15      0t0  TCP *:irdmi (LISTEN)

After terminating with Ctrl+C

$ pgrep -lf ionic
1622 ionic MACHINE_OS=x86_64_Darwin TERM_PROGRAM=iTerm.app

$ ps aux | grep node
andrew            1641   0.0  0.4  3185240  65572 s000  S     9:38am   0:01.72 node /path/to/project/node_modules/.bin/cordova run browser

$ lsof -i :8000
COMMAND  PID   USER   FD   TYPE             DEVICE SIZE/OFF NODE NAME
node    1641 andrew   11u  IPv6 0x5460f93470ec8a15      0t0  TCP *:irdmi (LISTEN)

Ionic info

$ ionic info

cli packages: (/path/to/env/lib/node_modules)

    @ionic/cli-utils  : 1.19.2
    ionic (Ionic CLI) : 3.20.0

global packages:

    cordova (Cordova CLI) : 8.0.0

local packages:

    @ionic/app-scripts : 3.1.8
    Cordova Platforms  : android 7.0.0 browser 5.0.3
    Ionic Framework    : ionic-angular 3.9.2

System:

    ios-deploy : 1.9.0
    ios-sim    : 5.0.8
    Node       : v8.10.0
    npm        : 5.6.0
    OS         : macOS Sierra
    Xcode      : Xcode 9.1 Build version 9B55

Environment Variables:

    ANDROID_HOME : not set

Misc:

    backend : pro

[imhoffd]

@bubbsi @marxide The Ionic CLI doesn't officially support the Cordova browser platform. See my reasoning here: #2312 (comment)

I'm most interested in if this is happening for ionic serve, which the original issue says it is.

[marxide]

@dwieeb Fair enough. I can confirm this doesn't happen to me when using ionic serve, everything seems to shutdown properly.

Sidenote: I'm only using the browser platform because I want to test my app as I write, but when I use ionic serve it doesn't load any of the Cordova plugins (e.g. Native Storage). From what I've gathered, this is expected. Is there another way I can test my app as I develop? Spinning up a device emulator or attaching a real device each time feels slow and inconvenient. Am I missing something?

[bubbsi]

Same Issue, it is really hard to code, if you can‘t test it while writing. The most other ways and workarounds need to much time.

[imhoffd]

@marxide @bubbsi I think using the Cordova browser platform as a testing platform is a good use case, as long as the dev understands it shouldn't be used for production. The decision has to be made early during app development, right? If the dev ever plans to target the desktop, the usage of Cordova plugins needs to be coded defensively with platform detection.

Basically,

doNativeThing() {
  if (this.platform.is('cordova')) {
    // use cordova plugin
  } else {
    // use web api
  }
}

But, if the dev plans to never target the desktop, the Cordova browser platform can be used as a testing framework. The code would just be:

doNativeThing() {
  // use cordova plugin
}

This has always been an annoyance that comes hand-in-hand with having a single code base being able to target multiple platforms 😄 It's an annoyance we're trying to solve with Capacitor.

Having understood your use case, I will investigate why there are leftover processes using ionic cordova run browser. Thanks!

[imhoffd]

@marxide @bubbsi Thinking this over a bit more, I may want to rework how the Cordova browser platform is used in the Ionic CLI. In an app with the Cordova integration enabled, instead of running ionic cordova run browser, one would run ionic serve, and the Ionic CLI would prepare everything Cordova needs. This would mean instead of doing a build and then cordova run, which is slow and doesn't have livereload, we'd use the livereload dev server from ionic serve and pull in all the Cordova files that the browser platform needs to run.

To me, ionic cordova run browser takes too long each time and isn't very useful while developing. I can make this work much better, but it'll be a little while before I start working on this, unfortunately.

[imhoffd]

👉 #3043

[marxide]

Thanks @dwieeb, that is exactly what I'm looking for. I have no intention of deploying a browser target (yet) so I was only using the browser platform to get around the Cordova plugin issue. I would much prefer to use ionic serve as you describe.

I look forward to trying it out when available.

[imhoffd]

Closing in favor of #3043, please subscribe to it for updates.