fix(shutdown): kill full child process trees and add synchronous exit handler to force-kill remaining child processes

changelog.md

@@ -1,5 +1,13 @@
 # Changelog
 
+## 2026-03-03 - 1.1.1 - fix(shutdown)
+kill full child process trees and add synchronous exit handler to force-kill remaining child processes
+
+- Use tree-kill via SmartExit.killTreeByPid to terminate entire process trees (attempt SIGTERM, fallback to SIGKILL).
+- Replace previous delayed/process.kill calls with awaitable tree-kill for more reliable termination.
+- Add a synchronous process.on('exit') handler that force-kills any remaining child processes as a last-resort safety net.
+- No public API changes; internal robustness/bugfix to shutdown behavior.
+
 ## 2025-12-15 - 1.1.0 - feat(smartexit)
 Add silent logging option, structured shutdown logs, and killAll return stats
 

ts/00_commitinfo_data.ts

@@ -3,6 +3,6 @@
  */
 export const commitinfo = {
   name: '@push.rocks/smartexit',
-  version: '1.1.0',
+  version: '1.1.1',
   description: 'A library for managing graceful shutdowns of Node.js processes by handling cleanup operations, including terminating child processes.'
 }

ts/index.ts

@@ -99,18 +99,22 @@ export class SmartExit {
     let processesKilled = 0;
     let cleanupFunctionsRan = 0;
 
-    // Kill child processes
+    // Kill child process trees
     if (processes.length > 0) {
       for (const childProcessArg of processes) {
         const pid = childProcessArg.pid;
         if (pid) {
-          plugins.smartdelay.delayFor(10000).then(() => {
+          try {
-            if (childProcessArg.killed) {
+            // Use tree-kill to kill the entire process tree, not just the direct child
-              return;
+            await SmartExit.killTreeByPid(pid, 'SIGTERM');
+          } catch (err) {
+            // SIGTERM failed — force kill the tree
+            try {
+              await SmartExit.killTreeByPid(pid, 'SIGKILL');
+            } catch {
+              // Process may already be dead, ignore
             }
-            process.kill(pid, 'SIGKILL');
+          }
-          });
-          process.kill(pid, 'SIGINT');
           processesKilled++;
         }
       }
@@ -130,14 +134,25 @@ export class SmartExit {
   constructor(optionsArg: ISmartExitOptions = {}) {
     this.options = optionsArg;
 
-    // do app specific cleaning before exiting
+    // Last-resort synchronous cleanup on exit — 'exit' event cannot await async work.
-    process.on('exit', async (code) => {
+    // By this point, SIGINT handler should have already called killAll().
-      if (code === 0) {
+    // This is a safety net for any processes still alive.
-        const { processesKilled, cleanupFunctionsRan } = await this.killAll();
+    process.on('exit', (code) => {
-        this.log(`Shutdown complete: killed ${processesKilled} child processes, ran ${cleanupFunctionsRan} cleanup functions`);
+      const processes = this.processesToEnd.getArray();
-      } else {
+      let killed = 0;
-        const { processesKilled, cleanupFunctionsRan } = await this.killAll();
+      for (const childProcessArg of processes) {
-        this.log(`Shutdown complete: killed ${processesKilled} child processes, ran ${cleanupFunctionsRan} cleanup functions (exit code: ${code})`, true);
+        const pid = childProcessArg.pid;
+        if (pid && !childProcessArg.killed) {
+          try {
+            process.kill(pid, 'SIGKILL');
+            killed++;
+          } catch {
+            // Process may already be dead, ignore
+          }
+        }
+      }
+      if (killed > 0) {
+        this.log(`Exit handler: force-killed ${killed} remaining child processes (exit code: ${code})`, code !== 0);
       }
     });