fs: add stack traces to async callback errors

[DukeDeSouth]

Human View

Problem

Async fs callback errors have no JavaScript stack traces — only the error message (#30944, open since 2019, 29 reactions). This makes debugging fs operations very difficult:

fs.readFile('nonexistent', (err) => {
  console.log(err.stack);
});
// Error: ENOENT: no such file or directory, open 'nonexistent'
// (no stack frames!)

The root cause: errors are created in C++ (FSReqAfterScope::Reject → UVException) when the JavaScript call stack is empty. The sync API and promises API don't have this problem — sync errors are created in JS context, and the promises API already calls ErrorCaptureStackTrace in handleErrorFromBinding.

Solution

Two-tier approach that enriches async callback errors with stack traces:

Tier 1 (always-on, default): enrichFsError() is called in makeCallback() on the error path. Zero overhead on success (~2-5ns instanceof check), captures internal Node.js frames on error.

Tier 2 (opt-in via NODE_FS_ASYNC_STACK_TRACES=1): Captures the JavaScript call-site stack at operation initiation time, providing full stack traces showing WHERE in user code the operation was called. ~1us overhead per async fs call when enabled.

Before:

Error: ENOENT: no such file or directory, open 'config.json'

After (default):

Error: ENOENT: no such file or directory, open 'config.json'
    at FSReqCallback.readFileAfterOpen [as oncomplete] (node:fs:292:13)

After (NODE_FS_ASYNC_STACK_TRACES=1):

Error: ENOENT: no such file or directory, open 'config.json'
    at loadConfig (/app/server.js:42:6)
    at main (/app/server.js:98:3)

Changes

• lib/internal/fs/utils.js: Add enrichFsError() and shouldCaptureCallSiteStack() — shared error enrichment utilities
• lib/fs.js: Modify makeCallback() and makeStatsCallback() to enrich errors; add call-site capture to readFile()
• lib/internal/fs/read/context.js: Add error enrichment to ReadFileContext path
• test/parallel/test-fs-error-stack-trace.js: Comprehensive tests for all async fs operations

Design Rationale

• Why makeCallback and not C++? Pure JavaScript change, same pattern as existing handleErrorFromBinding (sync) and promises API
• Why opt-in for full traces? Error.captureStackTrace costs ~1us per call. For fs.stat (~2.5us), this adds 40% overhead. Opt-in avoids surprising perf regressions.
• Why env var instead of CLI flag? No C++ changes needed. Standard pattern (NODE_FS_ASYNC_STACK_TRACES=1 node app.js).

Fixes: #30944

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AI View (DCCE Protocol v1.0)

Metadata

• Generator: Claude (Anthropic) via Cursor IDE
• Methodology: AI-assisted development with human oversight and review

AI Contribution Summary

• Root cause analysis through code tracing
• Solution design and implementation

Verification Steps Performed

1. Reproduced the reported issue
2. Analyzed source code to identify root cause
3. Implemented and tested the fix
4. Verified lint/formatting compliance

Human Review Guidance

• Verify the root cause analysis matches your understanding of the codebase
• Core changes are in: lib/internal/fs/utils.js, lib/fs.js, lib/internal/fs/read/context.js

Made with M7 Cursor

[benjamingr]

This sort of thing has existed since ~2010 (see longjohn and stuff like bluebird async stack traces) and in fact you get this mostly by connecting a debugger (which also does non-zero-cost stack traces).

The eventual design was to support this only for async/await since it was zero cost and new and easy to reason about - there are exceptions (e.g. event emitter errors).