NodeJS - ExpressJS: How to stream request body without buffering

Question

I need to handle some request without content-type as binary file

const app = express();
app.use(bodyParser.raw({type: (req) =>  !req.headers['content-type'], limit: '500mb' }));

those file can be huge (eg. 500 MB).

I want to read req.body as stream for don't wast memory, but bodyParser.raw() make req.body as Buffer .

How handle req.body as Stream ?

Answer 1

You can use stream to handle huge file.

Express http request is a readable stream, you can pipe the request binary to file, but make sure the output is also a writable stream.

Example code:

const fs = require('fs');
const path = require('path');
const express = require('express');
const app = express();

app.post('/', (req, res, next) => {
    req.pipe(fs.createWriteStream(path.join('./uploadFiles', Date.now().toString() + '.mp4')));
    req.on('end', () => {
        res.end('Upload complete');
        next();
    })
})

app.listen('3000', () => {
    console.log('Server listen to port 3000');
})