tutorial of node.js code sample fails with Error: listen EADDRINUSE

Question

I am a beginner programmer that is trying to learn node.js using the following tutorial site http://www.nodebeginner.org/#hello-world

I got to the point where I was trying to set up the server but got an error with the below code

var http = require("http");

http.createServer(function(request, response) {
  response.writeHead(200, {"Content-Type": "text/plain"});
  response.write("Hello World");
  response.end();
}).listen(8888);

error:

events.js:72
        throw er; // Unhandled 'error' event
              ^
Error: listen EADDRINUSE
    at errnoException (net.js:884:11)
    at Server._listen2 (net.js:1022:14)
    at listen (net.js:1044:10)
    at Server.listen (net.js:1110:5)
    at Object.<anonymous> (/Users/.........../server.js:7:4)
    at Module._compile (module.js:456:26)
    at Object.Module._extensions..js (module.js:474:10)
    at Module.load (module.js:356:32)
    at Function.Module._load (module.js:312:12)
    at Function.Module.runMain (module.js:497:10)

any help would be appreciated

Answer 1

EADDRINUSE means that address is in use.

Basically, you tried to start two servers at the same time that both use port 8888. You have to stop or kill one before starting another. The other server on port 8888 could be another process running your node script, or it could be something else in the system that serves content on port 8888.

Alternatively, you can get this if you don't let the socket settle for a few seconds after terminating the old server.

Answer 2

A more practical answer based on this great one .

Find out what is using port 8888 with this command:

lsof -i tcp:8888

You should get something like this:

COMMAND   PID    USER   FD   TYPE             DEVICE SIZE/OFF NODE NAME
node    86456   myName   13u  IPv6 0xa6b50fb47c9c3c81      0t0  TCP *:ddi-tcp-1 (LISTEN)

Now that you know which process is in the way, KILL IT! Softly, like so:

kill -15 86456