res.download() throws request aborted error after executing command

Question

I'm trying to create an archive that contains some .txt files, and then I want to download this archive. See the code below:

async function archiveAndDownload(res) {
    const bashCommand = ...
    const archive = ...

    exec(bashCommand, (err, stdout, stderr) => {
        if (err && err.code != 1) {
            console.log(err);
            res.status(500).json({ error: `Error.` });
            return;
        } else {
            if (stderr) {
                console.log(stderr);
            }
        }
    });

    res.status(200).download(archive, async (err) => {
        if (err) {
            console.log("Cannot download the archive " + err);
        } else {
            fs.unlink(archive);
        }
    });
}

async function getX(req, res) {
    try {
        await archiveAndDownload(res);  
    } catch (err) {
        console.log("Error: " + err);
    }   
}

When trying to test it from Postman, I get this error:

Cannot download the archive Error: Request aborted

How can I solve it? Thank you for your time!

(As a side note, if I try to move the download operation inside exec on else , it will work, but I wanted to have 2 separate blocks of code)

Answer 1

I figured it out..

The problem was with getX function. Sadly I forgot that there was a finally block at the end which always executes..

So the whole getX function was:

async function getX(req, res) {
    try {
        await archiveAndDownload(res);  
    } catch (err) {
        console.log("Error: " + err);
    } finally {
        res.end(); // <<<< this was my problem, I removed the whole finally block
    } 
}

I'm sorry I didn't write the whole function in this post, but it's good I FINALLY figured it out. Hope this will help someone. So be careful: never res.render , res.send , res.end etc after a res.download . You need to let the download finish first.