Should I do require('child_process').spawn('node', ['-e', code]) to run a lengthy operation?

Question

JavaScript doesn't allow multithreading. So I'm wondering if I should use

const node = require('child_process').spawn('node', ['-e', code]);

Where code is the lengthy operation's code I wish to run.

I've tried it and it does work, the main JS program doesn't remain blocked.

I can also use node.kill() after a timeout to stop the process.

Answer 1

No, you should not use child_process for node processes (unless you really need the OS to manage a separate process for some reason).

To run CPU-intensive JavaScript code without blocking, use worker threads . They have less overhead, simpler communication, and may share memory.