How to short-circuit those annoying favicon requests in node.js

favicon-interceptor.js

// early experiments with node had mysterious double requests
// turned out these were for the stoopid favicon
// here's how to short-circuit those requests
// and stop seeing 404 errors in your client console

var http = require('http');

http.createServer(function (q, r) { 

  // control for favicon

  if (q.url === '/favicon.ico') {
    r.writeHead(200, {'Content-Type': 'image/x-icon'} );
    r.end();
    console.log('favicon requested');
    return;
  }

  // not the favicon? say hai
  console.log('hello');
  r.writeHead(200, {'Content-Type': 'text/plain'} );
  r.write('Hello, world!');
  r.end();
  
}).listen(8000);

console.log('Server running at http://127.0.0.1:8000/');

If you are using express you can do it like this

app.use(express.favicon(__dirname + '/public/favicon.ico'));

Great Solution without express! Thanks!

Thank you! Exactly what I was looking for. 👍

Thanks... Once again.

Thanks that's what I was looking for 👍

👍

thanks for sharing 👍

Great !!!!!

Nice one, thanks

God Bless you~

if you are interested I made and express middleware based on this gist; you can find it here: https://github.com/mattiaerre/express-favicon-short-circuit

// cc @kentbrew

Worth noting that this only works if you call return form the main app.js file. I put the above code in a separate router.js file, and it didn't work as expected.

@damirkotoric Where would I call return from my server.js file? I'm new to backend Node.js. Installing @mattiaerre 's express-favicon-short-circuit middleware did not help, and I've already posted to stackoverflow.com, so I am on the hunt for answers to this favicon problem. This is the project I'm working on.

Hallelujah!!!

thanks man

Thanks a million. This was driving me insane

Thank you very much! ^_^

Thanks so much .. I was wondering why my page's visitor count was increasing twice on a single request.

I read up on StackOverFlow that 204 (No Content) is a better response status than 200 (Success) for silencing the favicon problem! Just saying. good solution, I just like the semantics implied by status 204. :)

Great approach. Thank you

Thank You.

👍 Thanks!

Still useful, thanks good Sir!!! 👏 👏

Thanks much 👏 👏 👏

Great man, thank you!

Exactly what i was looking for! Thanks ! 👏

I think the solution above don't avoid the favico requests @ least in my case! the solution that i came up with is adding an else statement in the end of my code to avoid all urls that i don't want

const http = require('http');

const server = http.createServer((req, res) => {
    console.log(req.url)
    console.log('user hit the server')
    if (req.url === '/') {


        res.writeHead(200,
            {
                'content-type': 'text/html',

            })
        
        res.write(`<h1>home page</h1>`)
         res.end()
    }
    else {
        res.writeHead(
                404,
            { 'Content-Type': 'text/html' }
        )
        res.write('<h2>Page not found!</h2>');
        res.end()
    }

})
server.listen(5000)`