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amqplib

AMQP 0-9-1 library and client for Node.JS

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Channel-oriented API reference

There are two parallel client APIs available. One uses promises, and the other uses callbacks, mutatis mutandis. Since they present much the same set of objects and methods, you are free to choose which you prefer, without missing out on any features. However, they don’t mix – a channel from the promises API has only the promise-based methods, and likewise the callback API – so it is best to pick one and stick with it.

The promise-based API is the “main” module in the library:

var amqp = require('amqplib');

You can access the callback-based API this way:

var amqp = require('amqplib/callback_api');

In the following I use “resolve”, “resolving” etc., to refer either to resolving a returned promise (usually with a value); or in the callback API, invoking a supplied callback with null as the first argument (and usually some value as the second argument). Likewise, “reject” etc., will mean rejecting a promise or calling the callback with an Error as the first argument (and no value).

Overview

The client APIs are based closely on the protocol model. The general idea is to connect, then create one or more channels on which to issue commands, send messages, and so on. Most errors in AMQP invalidate just the channel which had problems, so this ends up being a fairly natural way to use AMQP. The downside is that it doesn’t give any guidance on useful ways to use AMQP; that is, it does little beyond giving access to the various AMQP commands.

Most operations in AMQP are RPCs, synchronous at the channel layer of the protocol but asynchronous from the library’s point of view. Accordingly, most methods either return promises, or accept callbacks, yielding the server’s reply (often containing useful information such as generated identifiers). RPCs are queued by the channel if it is already waiting for a reply – synchronising on RPCs in this way is implicitly required by the protocol specification.

Some methods are not RPCs – they do not have responses from the server. These return either nothing (ack[All], nack[All], reject) or a boolean (publish and sendToQueue); see flow control.

Dealing with failure

Most operations in AMQP act like assertions, failing if the desired conditions cannot be met; for example, if a queue being declared already exists but with different properties. A failed operation will

Error events emitted from a channel (or a connection) have the potential to crash your application if not handled.

Since the RPCs are effectively synchronised, any such channel error is very likely to have been caused by the outstanding RPC. However, it’s often sufficient to fire off a number of RPCs and check only the result for the last, since it’ll be rejected if it or any of its predecessors fail.

The exception thrown on operations subsequent to a failure or channel close also contains the stack at the point that the channel was closed, in the field stackAtStateChange. This may be useful to determine what has caused an unexpected closure.

connection.createChannel().then(function(ch) {
  ch.close();
  try {
    ch.close();
  }
  catch (alreadyClosed) {
    console.log(alreadyClosed.stackAtStateChange);
  }
});

Exceptions and promises

Promises returned from methods are amenable to composition using, for example, when.js’s functions:

amqp.connect().then(function(conn) {
  var ok = conn.createChannel();
  ok = ok.then(function(ch) {
    return when.all([
      ch.assertQueue('foo'),
      ch.assertExchange('bar'),
      ch.bindQueue('foo', 'bar', 'baz'),
      ch.consume('foo', handleMessage)
    ]);
  });
  return ok;
}).then(null, console.warn);

If an exception is thrown in a promise continuation, the promise library will redirect control to a following error continuation:

amqp.connect().then(function(conn) {
 // Everything ok, but ..
 throw new Error('SNAFU');
}, function(err) {
 console.error('Connect failed: %s', err);
}).then(null, function(err) {
  console.error('Connect succeeded, but error thrown: %s', err);
});

Exceptions and callbacks

The callback API expects callbacks that follow the convention function(err, value) {...}. This library does not attempt to deal with exceptions thrown in callbacks, so in general they will trigger the last-resort 'uncaughtException' event of the process.

However, since the connection and channels are EventEmitters, they can be bound to a domain:

var dom = domain.create();
dom.on('error', gracefullyRestart);

amqp.connect(function(err, conn) {
 dom.add(conn);
 //...
});

Implicit binding works for connections or channels created within a Domain#run.

var dom = domain.create();
dom.on('error', gracefullyRestart);

dom.run(function() {
  amqp.connect(function(err, conn) {
      // ...
  });
});

Flow control

Channels act like stream.Writable when you call publish or sendToQueue: they return either true, meaning “keep sending”, or false, meaning “please wait for a ‘drain’ event”.

Those methods, along with ack, ackAll, nack, nackAll, and reject, do not have responses from the server. This means they do not return a promise in the promises API. The ConfirmChannel does accept a callback in both APIs, called when the server confirms the message; as well as returning a boolean.

Argument handling

Many operations have mandatory arguments as well as optional arguments with defaults; in general, the former appear as parameters to the method while latter are collected in a single options parameter, to be supplied as an object with the fields mentioned. Extraneous fields in options are ignored, so it is often possible to coalesce the options for a number of operations into a single object, should that be convenient. Likewise, fields from the prototype chain are accepted, so a common options value can be specialised by e.g., using Object.create(common) then setting some fields.

Often, AMQP commands have an arguments table that can contain arbitrary values, usually used by implementation-specific extensions like RabbitMQ’s consumer priorities. This is accessible as the option arguments, also an object: if an API method does not account for an extension in its stated options, you can fall back to using the options.arguments object, though bear in mind that the field name will usually be ‘x-something’, while the options are just ‘something’. Values passed in options, if understood by the API, will override those given in options.arguments.

var common_options = {durable: true, noAck: true};
ch.assertQueue('foo', common_options);
// Only 'durable' counts for queues

var bar_opts = Object.create(common_options);
bar_opts.autoDelete = true;
// "Subclass" our options
ch.assertQueue('bar', bar_opts);

var foo_consume_opts = Object.create(common_options);
foo_consume_opts.arguments = {'x-priority': 10};
ch.consume('foo', console.log, foo_consume_opts);
// Use the arguments table to give a priority, even though it's
// available as an option

var bar_consume_opts = Object.create(foo_consume_opts);
bar_consume_opts.priority = 5;
ch.consume('bar', console.log, bar_consume_opts);
// The 'priority' option will override that given in the arguments
// table

Field table values

The aforementioned arguments option, and the headers option of publish and sendToQueue, are both a “field table” value. This is an object with more or less arbitrary keys and values.

There are some special kinds of value that may be encoded in tables; these are represented in JavaScript using an object, with a field '!' giving the AMQP type. You can send these, and you may receive them.

Type Example
Timestamp {'!': 'timestamp', value: 1510443625620}
Decimal {'!': 'decimal', value: {digits: 4999, places: 2}}

Usually, numbers will be encoded as a double if they have a fractional part, and the smallest size of integer necessary, otherwise. For example, 12 will be encoded as a byte (int8), and 300 will be encoded as a short (int16).

For some purposes (header matching exchanges, for example) you may want to give a specific encoding for a number. You can use the '!' notation above to give the specific encoding; but you will not ever receive numbers like this – you’ll just get a number. There are aliases for most encodings, as shown in the examples.

Encoding Example
signed 8-bit integer {'!': 'int8', value: 64}
  {'!': 'byte', value: 64}
signed 16-bit integer {'!': 'int16', value: 64}
  {'!': 'short', value: 64}
signed 32-bit integer {'!': 'int32', value: 64}
  {'!': 'int', value: 64}
signed 64-bit integer {'!': 'int64', value: 64}
  {'!': 'long', value: 64}
32-bit floating point {'!': 'float', value: 64}
64-bit floating point {'!': 'double', value: 64}

NB AMQP only has signed integers in tables.

API reference

connect

Promises API

connect([url, [socketOptions]])

Callback API

connect([url, [socketOptions]], function(err, conn) {...})

Connect to an AMQP 0-9-1 server, optionally given an AMQP URL (see AMQP URI syntax) and socket options. The protocol part (amqp: or amqps:) is mandatory; defaults for elided parts are as given in 'amqp://guest:guest@localhost:5672'. If the URI is omitted entirely, it will default to 'amqp://localhost', which given the defaults for missing parts, will connect to a RabbitMQ installation with factory settings, on localhost.

auth

The auth section (guest:guest above) is treated as one section for the purpose of default values. If nothing appears there, the defaults will be used. If anything appears there, it will be taken as giving both the username and password (and if either is absent, it will be treated as empty i.e., '').

Usernames and passwords should be percent-encoded.

vhost

For convenience, an absent path segment (e.g., as in the URLs just given) is interpreted as the virtual host named /, which is present in RabbitMQ out of the box. Per the URI specification, just a trailing slash as in 'amqp://localhost/' would indicate the virtual host with an empty name, which does not exist unless it’s been explicitly created. When specifying another virtual host, remember that its name must be escaped; so e.g., the virtual host named /foo is '%2Ffoo'; in a full URI, 'amqp://localhost/%2Ffoo'.

tuning parameters

Further AMQP tuning parameters may be given in the query part of the URI, e.g., as in 'amqp://localhost?frameMax=0x1000'. These are:

Connecting with an object instead of a URL

The URL can also be supplied as an object of the form:

{
  protocol: 'amqp',
  hostname: 'localhost',
  port: 5672,
  username: 'guest',
  password: 'guest',
  locale: 'en_US',
  frameMax: 0,
  heartbeat: 0,
  vhost: '/',
}

in which case the values discussed above will be taken directly from the fields. Absent fields will be given defaults as for a URL supplied as a string.

Socket options

The socket options will be passed to the socket library (net or tls). In an exception to the general rule, they must be fields set on the object supplied; that is, not in the prototype chain. The socket options is useful for supplying certificates and so on for an SSL connection; see the SSL guide.

The socket options may also include the keys timeout and noDelay. timeout specifies the socket timeout in milliseconds while establishing the connection and noDelay is a boolean value that when true sets TCP_NODELAY on the underlying socket.

Client properties

You can specify additional client properties such as connection_name as follows…

amqp.connect('amqp://localhost', {clientProperties: {connection_name: 'myFriendlyName'}});
Result

The returned promise, or supplied callback, will either be resolved with an object representing an open connection, or rejected with a sympathetically-worded error (in en_US).

Supplying a malformed URI will cause connect() to throw an exception; other problems, including refused and dropped TCP connections, will result in a rejection.

RabbitMQ since version 3.2.0 will send a frame to notify the client of authentication failures, which results in a rejection. RabbitMQ before version 3.2.0, per the AMQP specification, will close the socket in the case of an authentication failure, making a dropped connection ambiguous (it will also wait a few seconds before doing so).

Heartbeating

If you supply a non-zero period in seconds as the heartbeat parameter, the connection will be monitored for liveness. If the client fails to read data from the connection for two successive intervals, the connection will emit an error and close. It will also send heartbeats to the server (in the absence of other data).

If you supply 0 as the heartbeat parameter (or defaults to 0), the server value is used. This means that you can only disable heartbeat if the server value is also 0. See here for more details.

NOTE: Please consider NOT disabling heartbeats because they exist for a reason.

ChannelModel and CallbackModel

These constructors represent connections in the channel APIs. They take as an argument a connection.Connection. It is better to use connect(), which will open the connection for you. The constructors are exported as potential extension points.

{Channel,Callback}Model#close

Promises API

connection.close()

Callback API

connection.close([function(err) {...}])

Close the connection cleanly. Will immediately invalidate any unresolved operations, so it’s best to make sure you’ve done everything you need to before calling this. Will be resolved once the connection, and underlying socket, are closed. The model will also emit 'close' at that point.

Although it’s not strictly necessary, it will avoid some warnings in the server log if you close the connection before exiting:

var open = amqp.connect();
open.then(function(conn) {
  var ok = doStuffWithConnection(conn);
  return ok.then(conn.close.bind(conn));
}).then(null, console.warn);

Note that I’m synchronising on the return value of doStuffWithConnection(), assumed here to be a promise, so that I can be sure I’m all done. The callback version looks like this:

amqp.connect(function(err, conn) {
  if (err !== null) return console.warn(err);
  doStuffWithConnection(conn, function() {
    conn.close();
  });
});

There it’s assumed that doStuffWithConnection invokes its second argument once it’s all finished.

If your program runs until interrupted, you can hook into the process signal handling to close the connection:

var open = amqp.connect();
open.then(function(conn) {
  process.once('SIGINT', conn.close.bind(conn));
  return doStuffWithConnection(conn);
}).then(null, console.warn);

NB it’s no good using process.on('exit', ...), since close() needs to do I/O.

{Channel,Callback}Model#updateSecret

Promises API

#updateSecret(secret, reason)

Callback API

#updateSecret(secret, reason, function(err) {...})

Updates the secret used to authenticate this connection. The secret must be a buffer, the reason must be a string.

{Channel,Callback}Model events

#on('close', function() {...})

Emitted once the closing handshake initiated by #close() has completed; or, if server closed the connection, once the client has sent the closing handshake; or, if the underlying stream (e.g., socket) has closed.

In the case of a server-initiated shutdown or an error, the 'close' handler will be supplied with an error indicating the cause. You can ignore this if you don’t care why the connection closed; or, you can test it with require('amqplib/lib/connection').isFatalError(err) to see if it was a crash-worthy error.

#on('error', function (err) {...})

Emitted if the connection closes for a reason other than #close being called or a graceful server-initiated close; such reasons include:

A graceful close may be initiated by an operator (e.g., with an admin tool), or if the server is shutting down; in this case, no 'error' event will be emitted.

'close' will also be emitted, after 'error'.

#on('blocked', function(reason) {...})

Emitted when a RabbitMQ server (after version 3.2.0) decides to block the connection. Typically it will do this if there is some resource shortage, e.g., memory, and messages are published on the connection. See the RabbitMQ documentation for this extension for details.

#on('unblocked', function() {...})

Emitted at some time after 'blocked', once the resource shortage has alleviated.

#on('update-secret-ok', function() {...})

Emitted after receiving confirmation from the broker that the connection secret was successfully updated.

{Channel,Callback}Model#createChannel

Promises API

#createChannel()

Callback API

#createChannel(function(err, channel) {...})

Resolves to an open Channel (The callback version returns the channel; but it is not usable before the callback has been invoked). May fail if there are no more channels available (i.e., if there are already channelMax channels open).

{Channel,Callback}Model#createConfirmChannel

Promises API

#createConfirmChannel()

Callback API

#createConfirmChannel(function(err, channel) {...})

Open a fresh channel, switched to “confirmation mode”. See ConfirmChannel below.

Channels

There are channel objects in each of the APIs, and these contain most of the methods for getting things done.

new Channel(connection)

This constructor represents a protocol channel. Channels are multiplexed over connections, and represent something like a session, in that most operations (and thereby most errors) are scoped to channels.

The constructor is exported from the API modules as an extension point. When using a client API, obtain an open Channel by opening a connection (connect() above) and calling #createChannel or #createConfirmChannel.

Channel#close

Promises API

Channel#close()

Callback API

Channel#close([function(err) {...}])

Close a channel. Will be resolved with no value once the closing handshake is complete.

There’s not usually any reason to close a channel rather than continuing to use it until you’re ready to close the connection altogether. However, the lifetimes of consumers are scoped to channels, and thereby other things such as exclusive locks on queues, so it is occasionally worth being deliberate about opening and closing channels.

Channel events

#on('close', function() {...})

A channel will emit 'close' once the closing handshake (possibly initiated by #close()) has completed; or, if its connection closes.

When a channel closes, any unresolved operations on the channel will be abandoned (and the returned promises rejected).

#on('error', function(err) {...})

A channel will emit 'error' if the server closes the channel for any reason. Such reasons include

A channel will not emit 'error' if its connection closes with an error.

#on('return', function(msg) {...})

If a message is published with the mandatory flag (it’s an option to Channel#publish in this API), it may be returned to the sending channel if it cannot be routed. Whenever this happens, the channel will emit return with a message object (as described in #consume) as an argument.

#on('drain', function() {...})

Like a stream.Writable, a channel will emit 'drain', if it has previously returned false from #publish or #sendToQueue, once its write buffer has been emptied (i.e., once it is ready for writes again).

Channel#assertQueue

Promises API

#assertQueue([queue, [options]])

Callback API

#assertQueue([queue, [options, [function(err, ok) {...}]]])

Assert a queue into existence. This operation is idempotent given identical arguments; however, it will break the channel if the queue already exists but has different properties (values supplied in the arguments field may or may not matter; check the broker’s, documentation).

queue is a string; if you supply an empty string or other falsey value (including null and undefined), the server will create a random name for you.

options is an object and may be empty or null, or outright omitted if it’s the last argument. The relevant fields in options are:

RabbitMQ extensions can also be supplied as options. These typically require non-standard x-* keys and values, sent in the arguments table; e.g., 'x-expires'. When supplied in options, the x- prefix for the key is removed; e.g., 'expires'. Values supplied in options will overwrite any analogous field you put in options.arguments.

Resolves to the “ok” reply from the server, which includes fields for the queue name (important if you let the server name it), a recent consumer count, and a recent message count; e.g.,

{
  queue: 'foobar',
  messageCount: 0,
  consumerCount: 0
}

Channel#checkQueue

Promises API

#checkQueue(queue)

Callback API

#checkQueue(queue, [function(err, ok) {...}])

Check whether a queue exists. This will break the channel if the named queue doesn’t exist; if it does exist, you go through to the next round! There’s no options, unlike #assertQueue(), just the queue name. The reply from the server is the same as for #assertQueue().

Channel#deleteQueue

Promises API

#deleteQueue(queue, [options])

Callback API

#deleteQueue(queue, [options, [function(err, ok) {...}]])

Delete the queue named. Naming a queue that doesn’t exist will result in the server closing the channel, to teach you a lesson (except in RabbitMQ version 3.2.0 and after1). The options here are:

Note the obverse semantics of the options: if both are true, the queue will be deleted only if it has no consumers and no messages.

You should leave out the options altogether if you want to delete the queue unconditionally.

The server reply contains a single field, messageCount, with the number of messages deleted or dead-lettered along with the queue.

Channel#purgeQueue

Promises API

#purgeQueue(queue)

Callback API

#purgeQueue(queue, [function(err, ok) {...}])

Remove all undelivered messages from the queue named. Note that this won’t remove messages that have been delivered but not yet acknowledged; they will remain, and may be requeued under some circumstances (e.g., if the channel to which they were delivered closes without acknowledging them).

The server reply contains a single field, messageCount, containing the number of messages purged from the queue.

Channel#bindQueue

Promises API

#bindQueue(queue, source, pattern, [args])

Callback API

#bindQueue(queue, source, pattern, [args, [function(err, ok) {...}]])

Assert a routing path from an exchange to a queue: the exchange named by source will relay messages to the queue named, according to the type of the exchange and the pattern given. The RabbitMQ tutorials give a good account of how routing works in AMQP.

args is an object containing extra arguments that may be required for the particular exchange type (for which, see your server’s documentation). It may be omitted if it’s the last argument, which is equivalent to an empty object.

The server reply has no fields.

Channel#unbindQueue

Promises API

#unbindQueue(queue, source, pattern, [args])

Callback API

#unbindQueue(queue, source, pattern, [args, [function(err, ok) {...}]])

Remove a routing path between the queue named and the exchange named as source with the pattern and arguments given. Omitting args is equivalent to supplying an empty object (no arguments). Beware: attempting to unbind when there is no such binding may result in a punitive error (the AMQP specification says it’s a connection-killing mistake; RabbitMQ before version 3.2.0 softens this to a channel error, and from version 3.2.0, doesn’t treat it as an error at all1. Good ol’ RabbitMQ).

Channel#assertExchange

Promises API

#assertExchange(exchange, type, [options])

Callback API

#assertExchange(exchange, type, [options, [function(err, ok) {...}]])

Assert an exchange into existence. As with queues, if the exchange exists already and has properties different to those supplied, the channel will break; fields in the arguments object may or may not matter, depending on the type of exchange. Unlike queues, you must supply a name, and it can’t be the empty string. You must also supply an exchange type, which determines how messages will be routed through the exchange.

NB There is just one RabbitMQ extension pertaining to exchanges in general (alternateExchange); however, specific exchange types may use the arguments table to supply parameters.

The options:

The server reply echoes the exchange name, in the field exchange.

Channel#checkExchange

Promises API

#checkExchange(exchange)

Callback API

#checkExchange(exchange, [function(err, ok) {...}])

Check that an exchange exists. If it doesn’t exist, the channel will be closed with an error. If it does exist, happy days.

Channel#deleteExchange

Promises API

#deleteExchange(name, [options])

Callback API

#deleteExchange(name, [options, [function(err, ok) {...}]])

Delete an exchange. The only meaningful field in options is:

If the exchange does not exist, a channel error is raised (RabbitMQ version 3.2.0 and after will not raise an error1).

The server reply has no fields.

Channel#bindExchange

Promises API

#bindExchange(destination, source, pattern, [args])

Callback API

#bindExchange(destination, source, pattern, [args, [function(err, ok) {...}]])

Bind an exchange to another exchange. The exchange named by destination will receive messages from the exchange named by source, according to the type of the source and the pattern given. For example, a direct exchange will relay messages that have a routing key equal to the pattern.

NB Exchange to exchange binding is a RabbitMQ extension.

The server reply has no fields.

Channel#unbindExchange

Promises API

#unbindExchange(destination, source, pattern, [args])

Callback API

#unbindExchange(destination, source, pattern, [args, [function(err, ok) {...}]])

Remove a binding from an exchange to another exchange. A binding with the exact source exchange, destination exchange, routing key pattern, and extension args will be removed. If no such binding exists, it’s – you guessed it – a channel error, except in RabbitMQ >= version 3.2.0, for which it succeeds trivially1.

Channel#publish

Promises and callback APIs

#publish(exchange, routingKey, content, [options])

NOTE: Does not return a promise in the promises API; see flow control

Publish a single message to an exchange. The mandatory parameters are:

The remaining parameters are provided as fields in options, and are divided into those that have some meaning to RabbitMQ and those that will be ignored by RabbitMQ but passed on to consumers. options may be omitted altogether, in which case defaults as noted will apply.

The “meaningful” options are a mix of fields in BasicDeliver (the method used to publish a message), BasicProperties (in the message header frame) and RabbitMQ extensions which are given in the headers table in BasicProperties.

Used by RabbitMQ and sent on to consumers:

Used by RabbitMQ but not sent on to consumers:

Not used by RabbitMQ and not sent to consumers:

Ignored by RabbitMQ (but may be useful for applications):

#publish mimics the stream.Writable interface in its return value; it will return false if the channel’s write buffer is ‘full’, and true otherwise. If it returns false, it will emit a 'drain' event at some later time.

Channel#sendToQueue

Promises and callback APIs

#sendToQueue(queue, content, [options])

NOTE: Does not return a promise in the promises API; see flow control

Send a single message with the content given as a buffer to the specific queue named, bypassing routing. The options and return value are exactly the same as for #publish.

Channel#consume

Promises API

#consume(queue, function(msg) {...}, [options])

Callback API

#consume(queue, function(msg) {...}, [options, [function(err, ok) {...}]])

Set up a consumer with a callback to be invoked with each message.

Options (which may be omitted if the last argument):

The server reply contains one field, consumerTag. It is necessary to remember this somewhere if you will later want to cancel this consume operation (i.e., to stop getting messages).

The message callback supplied in the second argument will be invoked with message objects of this shape:

{
  content: Buffer,
  fields: Object,
  properties: Object
}

The message content is a buffer containing the bytes published.

The fields object has a handful of bookkeeping values largely of interest only to the library code: deliveryTag, a serial number for the message; consumerTag, identifying the consumer for which the message is destined; exchange and routingKey giving the routing information with which the message was published; and, redelivered, which if true indicates that this message has been delivered before and been handed back to the server (e.g., by a nack or recover operation).

The properties object contains message properties, which are all the things mentioned under #publish as options that are transmitted. Note that RabbitMQ extensions (just CC, presently) are sent in the headers table so will appear there in deliveries.

If the consumer is cancelled by RabbitMQ, the message callback will be invoked with null.

Channel#cancel

Promises API

#cancel(consumerTag)

Callback API

#cancel(consumerTag, [function(err, ok) {...}])

This instructs the server to stop sending messages to the consumer identified by consumerTag. Messages may arrive between sending this and getting its reply; once the reply has resolved, however, there will be no more messages for the consumer, i.e., the message callback will no longer be invoked.

The consumerTag is the string given in the reply to #consume, which may have been generated by the server.

Channel#get

Promises API

#get(queue, [options])

Callback API

#get(queue, [options, [function(err, msgOrFalse) {...}]])

Ask a queue for a message, as an RPC. This will be resolved with either false, if there is no message to be had (the queue has no messages ready), or a message in the same shape as detailed in #consume.

Options:

Channel#ack

Promises and callback APIs

#ack(message, [allUpTo])

NOTE: Does not return a promise in the promises API, or accept a callback in the callback API.

Acknowledge the given message, or all messages up to and including the given message.

If a #consume or #get is issued with noAck: false (the default), the server will expect acknowledgements for messages before forgetting about them. If no such acknowledgement is given, those messages may be requeued once the channel is closed.

If allUpTo is true, all outstanding messages prior to and including the given message shall be considered acknowledged. If false, or omitted, only the message supplied is acknowledged.

It’s an error to supply a message that either doesn’t require acknowledgement, or has already been acknowledged. Doing so will break the channel. If you want to acknowledge all the messages and you don’t have a specific message around, use #ackAll.

Channel#ackAll

Promises and callback APIs

#ackAll()

NOTE: Does not return a promise in the promises API, or accept a callback in the callback API.

Acknowledge all outstanding messages on the channel. This is a “safe” operation, in that it won’t result in an error even if there are no such messages.

Channel#nack

Promises and callback APIs

#nack(message, [allUpTo, [requeue]])

NOTE: Does not return a promise in the promises API, or accept a callback in the callback API.

Reject a message. This instructs the server to either requeue the message or throw it away (which may result in it being dead-lettered).

If allUpTo is truthy, all outstanding messages prior to and including the given message are rejected. As with #ack, it’s a channel-ganking error to use a message that is not outstanding. Defaults to false.

If requeue is truthy, the server will try to put the message or messages back on the queue or queues from which they came. Defaults to true if not given, so if you want to make sure messages are dead-lettered or discarded, supply false here.

This and #nackAll use a RabbitMQ-specific extension.

Channel#nackAll

Promises and callback APIs

#nackAll([requeue])

NOTE: Does not return a promise in the promises API, or accept a callback in the callback API.

Reject all messages outstanding on this channel. If requeue is truthy, or omitted, the server will try to re-enqueue the messages.

Channel#reject

Promises and callback APIs

#reject(message, [requeue])

NOTE: Does not return a promise in the promises API, or accept a callback in the callback API.

Reject a message. Equivalent to #nack(message, false, requeue), but works in older versions of RabbitMQ (< v2.3.0) where #nack does not.

Channel#prefetch

Promises API

#prefetch(count, [global])

Callback API

#prefetch(count, [[global], [function(err, ok) {...}]])

Set the prefetch count for this channel. The count given is the maximum number of messages sent over the channel that can be awaiting acknowledgement; once there are count messages outstanding, the server will not send more messages on this channel until one or more have been acknowledged. A falsey value for count indicates no such limit. The server will reply (with an empty object) if successful.

NB RabbitMQ v3.3.0 changes the meaning of prefetch (basic.qos) to apply per-consumer, rather than per-channel. It will apply to consumers started after the method is called. See rabbitmq-prefetch.

Use the global flag to get the per-channel behaviour. To keep life interesting, using the global flag with an RabbitMQ older than v3.3.0 will bring down the whole connection.

NB RabbitMQ v4.0 has deprecated global prefetch. See removal-of-global-qos

Channel#recover

Promises API

#recover()

Callback API

#recover([function(err, ok) {...}])

Requeue unacknowledged messages on this channel. The server will reply (with an empty object) once all messages are requeued.

ConfirmChannel

A channel which uses “confirmation mode” (a RabbitMQ extension).

On a channel in confirmation mode, each published message is ‘acked’ or (in exceptional circumstances) ‘nacked’ by the server, thereby indicating that it’s been dealt with.

A confirm channel has the same methods as a regular channel, except that #publish and #sendToQueue accept a callback as an additional argument. See examples and method signature below.

var open = require('amqplib').connect();
open.then(function(c) {
  c.createConfirmChannel().then(function(ch) {
    ch.sendToQueue('foo', new Buffer('foobar'), {},
      function(err, ok) {
        if (err !== null)
          console.warn('Message nacked!');
        else
          console.log('Message acked');
    });
  });
});

Or, with the callback API:

require('amqplib/callback_api').connect(function(err, c) {
  c.createConfirmChannel(function(err, ch) {
    ch.sendToQueue('foo', new Buffer('foobar'), {}, function(err, ok) {
      if (err !== null) console.warn('Message nacked!');
      else console.log('Message acked');
    });
  });
});

There are, broadly speaking, two uses for confirms. The first is to be able to act on the information that a message has been accepted, for example by responding to an upstream request. The second is to rate limit a publisher by limiting the number of unconfirmed messages it’s allowed.

new ConfirmChannel(connection)

This constructor is a channel that uses confirms. It is exported as an extension point. To obtain such a channel, use connect to get a connection, then call #createConfirmChannel.

ConfirmChannel#publish

Promises and callback APIs

#publish(exchange, routingKey, content, options, function(err, ok) {...})

NOTE: Does not return a promise and stil expects a callback in the promises API; see flow control

options argument must be supplied, at least as an empty object.

ConfirmChannel#sendToQueue

Promises and callback APIs

#sendToQueue(queue, content, options, function(err, ok) {...})

NOTE: Does not return a promise and stil expects a callback in the promises API; see flow control

options argument must be supplied, at least as an empty object.

ConfirmChannel#waitForConfirms

Promises API

#waitForConfirms()

Callback API

#waitForConfirms(function(err) {...})

Resolves the promise, or invokes the callback, when all published messages have been confirmed. If any of the messages has been nacked, this will result in an error; otherwise the result is no value. Either way, the channel is still usable afterwards. It is also possible to call waitForConfirms multiple times without waiting for previous invocations to complete.

RabbitMQ and deletion

RabbitMQ version 3.2.0 makes queue and exchange deletions (and unbind) effectively idempotent, by not raising an error if the exchange, queue, or binding does not exist.

This does not apply to preconditions given to the operations. For example deleting a queue with {ifEmpty: true} will still fail if there are messages in the queue.