Node.js express static server hangs on images- Chrome only

Question

This is a really strange bug that has been bothering me for ages. I have a basic website that uses Express Static middleware in addition to separate routes that render Jade.

Here's my config

app.set('views', __dirname + '/views');
app.set('view engine', 'jade');

app.use(stylus.middleware({
    src      : __dirname + '/public',
    dest        : __dirname + '/public',
    compile : function(str, path)
    {
        return stylus(str)
        .set('filename', path)
        .set('compress', true) 
        .use(nib())
    }
}));


app.use(bodyParser.urlencoded({ extended: false }))
app.use(bodyParser.json())
app.use(cookieParser())
app.use(session({ secret: conf.sessionSecret, 
                        store: new RedisStore(),
                        saveUninitialized: true,
                        resave: true
}));

app.use(express.static(__dirname + '/public'))

Here's my issue. After precisely 5 refreshes in a single tab in Chrome, image files refuse to load. All other content is fine, just images and just in Chrome. In order to remedy this, you have to open a new tab. I've tested this in Firefox as well- no issues. This error doesn't just happen in this application- it's happened in many of my others as well.

As this project is currently in development, I'd rather not put in online as an example. Rest assured, this is completely reproducible. Any ideas?

UPDATE: I updated to Express 4 on the slim chance that updating might fix my issue. It did not. You can see a screen cast I made of the issue here.

UPDATE: To test if the issue was with static server, I modified my code to be like this:

app.get('/img/*', function (req,res)
{
    console.log(req.url);
    console.log(path.extname(req.url));
    if (imgExt.indexOf(path.extname(req.url)) != -1)
    {
        res.sendfile('./public/'+req.url);
    }
});

app.use(express.static(__dirname + '/public'))

This had no effect, so I'm thinking this issue is either client-side or a bug with Chrome.

Answer 1

After hours upon hours of debugging, I discovered this legacy bit of code buried in my servers.

app.get('/favicon.ico', function (req, res)
{
    res.writeHead(200, {'Content-Type': 'image/x-icon'} );
});

It was intended to prevent the double requests for a favicon by an older version of Express. Obviously I forgot to call res.end() at the end. What boggles my mind is that neither Firefox nor Internet Explorer kept this connection alive between refreshes, while Chrome did. I appreciate the dialogue everybody!