unicorn/no-process-exit

process.exit() stops the process immediately. Pending work is dropped, finally blocks don't run, and the code that called yours never gets a chance to handle the failure. Throw an error instead, or set process.exitCode and let the process end when it has nothing left to do.

Configure

Off by default. To turn it on:

[lint.rules]
"unicorn/no-process-exit" = "error" # or "warn"

Examples

Reported:

function loadConfig(path) {
  if (!exists(path)) {
    console.error("config not found");
    process.exit(1);
  }
}

Not reported:

function loadConfig(path) {
  if (!exists(path)) {
    throw new Error("config not found");
  }
}

The rule allows process.exit() in three places. The first is a file that starts with #!. That's a command-line program, so it decides when to exit:

#!/usr/bin/env bun
if (!(await run())) {
  process.exit(1);
}

The second is a handler passed to process.on() or process.once():

process.on("SIGINT", () => {
  closeServer();
  process.exit(130);
});

The third is a file that imports something from node:worker_threads, where process.exit() ends the worker thread, not the process:

import { parentPort } from "node:worker_threads";

parentPort.on("message", message => {
  if (message === "stop") process.exit(0);
});