Interaction between VboxManage and Node.JS

[rogierschouten]

There is an interaction between VB and Node.JS that makes "VboxManage guestcontrol run" hang in v5.0.20 where version 4.x did not. Apparently it is possible for VBoxManage to be robust to this because it worked in version 4.

To reproduce,

• install Node.JS v5.9 on a Windows 7 guest.
• create a file C:\test.js with just the content:

console.log('hi');

• create a .bat file with the following content (yes it needs to be two calls):

C:\Program Files\nodejs\node.exe C:\test.js C:\Program Files\nodejs\node.exe C:\test.js

• Run the .bat file on the guest, you will see that it terminates.

• Now run the .bat file from the host with "VboxManage guestcontrol run". It hangs.

• Now run the same command with --no-wait-stdout and --no-wait-stderr. Both VBoxManage and also the process on the guest terminate.

This is almost certainly something that isn't OK in Node.JS. However apparently it is possible for VBoxManage to be robust to this. It has something to do with stdout/stderr not closing for some reason.