Axios Unable to Handle "204 No Content" Responses

[yuchen001]

Describe the bug

As of today, Axios seems to be unable to handle requests that result in a "204 No Content" response. Any API request that responds with a 204 status code is treated as a timeout.

Preliminary testing and investigation suggest that the issue might be related to Axios instances.

It might be challenging to provide a publicly accessible test case since finding APIs that reliably respond with a 204 status code could be difficult.

To Reproduce

As of the latest observation, Axios encounters an issue where responses with an empty body (e.g., "204 No Content") are incorrectly treated as timeouts when using an Axios instance.

Notably, when requests are made without creating an Axios instance directly, the behavior is as expected.

Steps to Reproduce:

• Create an Axios instance.
• Make a request using the Axios instance to an API endpoint that returns a response with an empty body (e.g., 204 status code).
• Observe that the Axios instance incorrectly handles the response as a timeout.

Code snippet

No response

Expected behavior

Axios should accurately handle responses with an empty body, such as 204 status codes, without treating them as timeouts.

Axios Version

No response

Adapter Version

No response

Browser

No response

Browser Version

No response

Node.js Version

No response

OS

No response

Additional Library Versions

No response

Additional context/Screenshots

No response

[DigitalBrainJS]

It might be challenging to provide a publicly accessible test case since finding APIs that reliably respond with a 204 status code could be difficult.

I can't reproduce

const res = await axios.get('https://httpbin.org/status/204');

console.log(res.status, res.statusText); // 204 NO CONTENT

[ttomasini]

I've the same / a similar issue. Unfortunately I cannot disclose the URL but I can contribute some more details:

Axios Version

0.28.0 / 0.28.1

Node Version

was able to reproduce it with v18.20.2

package.json

{
  "name": "axios-test",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "description": "",
  "main": "app.js",
  "type": "module",
  "dependencies": {
    "axios": "~0.28.1"
  }
}

Code Snippet (minimal example)

#!/usr/bin/env node

import axios from 'axios';

axios.get('https://foo.bar/health/')
  .then(function (response) {
    console.log(response);
  })
  .catch(function (error) {
    console.log(error);
  })
  .finally(function () {});

Log

Expand code...

❯ node app.js
AxiosError: unexpected end of file
    at AxiosError.from (/Users/tio/devel/private/axios-test/node_modules/axios/lib/core/AxiosError.js:86:14)
    at Unzip.handleStreamError (/Users/tio/devel/private/axios-test/node_modules/axios/lib/adapters/http.js:366:29)
    at Unzip.emit (node:events:517:28)
    at emitErrorNT (node:internal/streams/destroy:151:8)
    at emitErrorCloseNT (node:internal/streams/destroy:116:3)
    at process.processTicksAndRejections (node:internal/process/task_queues:82:21) {
  code: 'Z_BUF_ERROR',
  errno: -5,
  config: {
    transitional: {
      silentJSONParsing: true,
      forcedJSONParsing: true,
      clarifyTimeoutError: false
    },
    adapter: [Function: httpAdapter],
    transformRequest: [ [Function: transformRequest] ],
    transformResponse: [ [Function: transformResponse] ],
    timeout: 0,
    xsrfCookieName: 'XSRF-TOKEN',
    xsrfHeaderName: 'X-XSRF-TOKEN',
    maxContentLength: -1,
    maxBodyLength: -1,
    env: { FormData: [Function], Blob: [class Blob] },
    validateStatus: [Function: validateStatus],
    headers: {
      Accept: 'application/json, text/plain, */*',
      'Accept-Encoding': 'gzip,deflate,compress',
      'User-Agent': 'axios/0.28.1'
    },
    method: 'get',
    url: 'https://foo.bar/health/',
    data: undefined
  },
  request: <ref *1> ClientRequest {
    _events: [Object: null prototype] {
      abort: [Function (anonymous)],
      aborted: [Function (anonymous)],
      connect: [Function (anonymous)],
      error: [Function (anonymous)],
      socket: [Function (anonymous)],
      timeout: [Function (anonymous)],
      finish: [Function: requestOnFinish]
    },
    _eventsCount: 7,
    _maxListeners: undefined,
    outputData: [],
    outputSize: 0,
    writable: true,
    destroyed: true,
    _last: true,
    chunkedEncoding: false,
    shouldKeepAlive: false,
    maxRequestsOnConnectionReached: false,
    _defaultKeepAlive: true,
    useChunkedEncodingByDefault: false,
    sendDate: false,
    _removedConnection: false,
    _removedContLen: false,
    _removedTE: false,
    strictContentLength: false,
    _contentLength: 0,
    _hasBody: true,
    _trailer: '',
    finished: true,
    _headerSent: true,
    _closed: true,
    socket: TLSSocket {
      _tlsOptions: [Object],
      _secureEstablished: true,
      _securePending: false,
      _newSessionPending: false,
      _controlReleased: true,
      secureConnecting: false,
      _SNICallback: null,
      servername: 'foo.bar',
      alpnProtocol: false,
      authorized: true,
      authorizationError: null,
      encrypted: true,
      _events: [Object: null prototype],
      _eventsCount: 9,
      connecting: false,
      _hadError: false,
      _parent: null,
      _host: 'foo.bar',
      _closeAfterHandlingError: false,
      _readableState: [ReadableState],
      _maxListeners: undefined,
      _writableState: [WritableState],
      allowHalfOpen: false,
      _sockname: null,
      _pendingData: null,
      _pendingEncoding: '',
      server: undefined,
      _server: null,
      ssl: null,
      _requestCert: true,
      _rejectUnauthorized: true,
      parser: null,
      _httpMessage: [Circular *1],
      write: [Function: writeAfterFIN],
      [Symbol(alpncallback)]: null,
      [Symbol(res)]: null,
      [Symbol(verified)]: true,
      [Symbol(pendingSession)]: null,
      [Symbol(async_id_symbol)]: 10,
      [Symbol(kHandle)]: null,
      [Symbol(lastWriteQueueSize)]: 0,
      [Symbol(timeout)]: null,
      [Symbol(kBuffer)]: null,
      [Symbol(kBufferCb)]: null,
      [Symbol(kBufferGen)]: null,
      [Symbol(kCapture)]: false,
      [Symbol(kSetNoDelay)]: false,
      [Symbol(kSetKeepAlive)]: true,
      [Symbol(kSetKeepAliveInitialDelay)]: 60,
      [Symbol(kBytesRead)]: 392,
      [Symbol(kBytesWritten)]: 180,
      [Symbol(connect-options)]: [Object]
    },
    _header: 'GET /-/health/ready/ HTTP/1.1\r\n' +
      'Accept: application/json, text/plain, */*\r\n' +
      'Accept-Encoding: gzip,deflate,compress\r\n' +
      'User-Agent: axios/0.28.1\r\n' +
      'Host: foo.bar\r\n' +
      'Connection: close\r\n' +
      '\r\n',
    _keepAliveTimeout: 0,
    _onPendingData: [Function: nop],
    agent: Agent {
      _events: [Object: null prototype],
      _eventsCount: 2,
      _maxListeners: undefined,
      defaultPort: 443,
      protocol: 'https:',
      options: [Object: null prototype],
      requests: [Object: null prototype] {},
      sockets: [Object: null prototype] {},
      freeSockets: [Object: null prototype] {},
      keepAliveMsecs: 1000,
      keepAlive: false,
      maxSockets: Infinity,
      maxFreeSockets: 256,
      scheduling: 'lifo',
      maxTotalSockets: Infinity,
      totalSocketCount: 0,
      maxCachedSessions: 100,
      _sessionCache: [Object],
      [Symbol(kCapture)]: false
    },
    socketPath: undefined,
    method: 'GET',
    maxHeaderSize: undefined,
    insecureHTTPParser: undefined,
    joinDuplicateHeaders: undefined,
    path: '/-/health/ready/',
    _ended: true,
    res: IncomingMessage {
      _readableState: [ReadableState],
      _events: [Object: null prototype],
      _eventsCount: 1,
      _maxListeners: undefined,
      socket: [TLSSocket],
      httpVersionMajor: 1,
      httpVersionMinor: 1,
      httpVersion: '1.1',
      complete: true,
#!/usr/bin/env node
      rawHeaders: [Array],
      rawTrailers: [],
      joinDuplicateHeaders: undefined,
      aborted: false,
      upgrade: false,
      url: '',
      method: null,
      statusCode: 204,
      statusMessage: 'No Content',
      client: [TLSSocket],
      _consuming: false,
      _dumped: false,
      req: [Circular *1],
      responseUrl: 'https://foo.bar/health/',
      redirects: [],
      [Symbol(kCapture)]: false,
      [Symbol(kHeaders)]: [Object],
      [Symbol(kHeadersCount)]: 26,
      [Symbol(kTrailers)]: null,
      [Symbol(kTrailersCount)]: 0
    },
    aborted: false,
    timeoutCb: null,
    upgradeOrConnect: false,
    parser: null,
    maxHeadersCount: null,
    reusedSocket: false,
    host: 'foo.bar',
    protocol: 'https:',
    _redirectable: Writable {
      _writableState: [WritableState],
      _events: [Object: null prototype],
      _eventsCount: 3,
      _maxListeners: undefined,
      _options: [Object],
      _ended: true,
      _ending: true,
      _redirectCount: 0,
      _redirects: [],
      _requestBodyLength: 0,
      _requestBodyBuffers: [],
      _onNativeResponse: [Function (anonymous)],
      _currentRequest: [Circular *1],
      _currentUrl: 'https://foo.bar/health/',
      [Symbol(kCapture)]: false
    },
    [Symbol(kCapture)]: false,
    [Symbol(kBytesWritten)]: 0,
    [Symbol(kNeedDrain)]: false,
    [Symbol(corked)]: 0,
    [Symbol(kOutHeaders)]: [Object: null prototype] {
      accept: [Array],
      'accept-encoding': [Array],
      'user-agent': [Array],
      host: [Array]
    },
    [Symbol(errored)]: null,
    [Symbol(kHighWaterMark)]: 16384,
    [Symbol(kRejectNonStandardBodyWrites)]: false,
    [Symbol(kUniqueHeaders)]: null
  },
  cause: Error: unexpected end of file
      at Zlib.zlibOnError [as onerror] (node:zlib:189:17) {
    errno: -5,
    code: 'Z_BUF_ERROR'
  }
}

Interestingly the request works setting the request header to "Accept-Encoding": "*" or "Accept-Encoding": "zstd" or when downgrading to e.g. 0.27.2.

Looks like it is somehow related to #5246

[ttomasini]

@DigitalBrainJS Please let me know if you need any further information to track this issue down. I'd be very happy to provide the necessary details if possible.

[DigitalBrainJS]

@ttomasini This is a known issue in Axios 0.x. Axios 1.x fixes a batch of issues related to response decompression in node.js, including this one. (#5306, #4701)

[ttomasini]

@DigitalBrainJS Thank you for the quick answer Dmitriy! That's good to know. I just wonder why it works/worked flawlessly in v0.27.2.
So I have to inform the affected project to migrate to axios v1.x