Blocking event loop when a particular function is running

Question

I'm assuming the answer to this is really simple.

I want to block the nodejs event loop whenever a particular function is running. The function itself might call some async things it waits on, but I don't want anything else to happen while this function is doing its thing.

thanks!

Answer 1

The way to block the event loop in node.js is to make the code synchronous:

while (true) {
  // this will block the event loop
}

Recursion is also synchronous

  function rec() {
    rec();
  }

  // This one exists with RangeError: Maximum call stack size exceeded

Using any synchronous functions like:

fs.readFileSync()
fs.writeFileSync()

// any sync functions will do

If you intend to create a timeout, that blocks everything just create a for loop to a billion and it will stop for a while.

Your request seems unnatural, maybe it is not node.js that you need. Usually, people in node are trying to make everything asynchronous.