fix: app crash if no writable stdout is available #9951

packages/insomnia-smoke-test/tests/smoke/stdout-epipe.test.ts

@@ -0,0 +1,37 @@
+import { expect } from '@playwright/test';
+
+import { test } from '../../playwright/test';
+
+// Regression tests for https://github.com/Kong/insomnia/issues/9951
+// On Linux, launching from a .desktop entry (or any context without a writable stdout)
+// could crash the main process via an async EPIPE error event on process.stdout.
+test.describe('stdout EPIPE resilience', () => {
+  test('EPIPE error handler is registered on process.stdout at startup', async ({ app }) => {
+    const listenerCount = await app.evaluate(() => process.stdout.listenerCount('error'));
+    expect.soft(listenerCount).toBeGreaterThan(0);
+  });
+
+  test('app survives an async EPIPE error on stdout', async ({ app }) => {
+    // Schedule the emit via nextTick so it fires outside evaluate()'s synchronous
+    // context — mirroring the real scenario where EPIPE arrives as an async I/O
+    // event from the OS. Without the fix, the throw escapes into the event loop
+    // as an uncaught exception and crashes the main process.
+    await app.evaluate(() => {
+      process.nextTick(() => {
+        const err: NodeJS.ErrnoException = new Error('write EPIPE');
+        err.code = 'EPIPE';
+        process.stdout.emit('error', err);
+      });
+    });
+
+    // Flush the main-process event loop before asserting — setImmediate fires
+    // after all I/O events in the current iteration, confirming the error event
+    // was fully handled without triggering an uncaught exception.
+    await app.evaluate(() => new Promise<void>(resolve => setImmediate(resolve)));
+
+    // The app must still be alive. If the main process crashed from an uncaught
+    // EPIPE exception, evaluate() would throw with a "Target closed" error.
+    const alive = await app.evaluate(() => true);
+    expect.soft(alive).toBe(true);
+  });
+});

packages/insomnia/src/entry.main.ts

@@ -50,9 +50,9 @@ const dataPath =
   path.join(app.getPath('userData'), '../', isDevelopment() ? 'insomnia-app' : userDataFolder);
 
 app.setPath('userData', dataPath);
-initElectronStorage(dataPath);
 
 initializeLogging();
+initElectronStorage(dataPath);
 
 initializeSentry();
 

packages/insomnia/src/main/log.ts

@@ -8,6 +8,17 @@ import { isDevelopment } from '../common/constants';
 log.initialize();
 
 export const initializeLogging = () => {
+  // EPIPE is emitted asynchronously on process.stdout when the read end of the
+  // pipe is closed (e.g. launched from a desktop entry, or `app | head -0`).
+  // It surfaces as an 'error' event after the write is dispatched, so it
+  // escapes any try/catch around the console.log call itself.  Without a
+  // handler it becomes an uncaught exception that crashes the main process.
+  process.stdout.on('error', (err: NodeJS.ErrnoException) => {
+    if (err.code !== 'EPIPE') {
+      throw err;
+    }
+  });
+
   if (isDevelopment()) {
     // Disable file logging during development
     log.transports.file.level = false;