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AbortController.signal.addEventListener does not handle capture option #51703

Description

@krutoo

Version

v20.11.0

Platform

Linux petrov-dm 6.5.0-15-generic #15~22.04.1-Ubuntu SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Fri Jan 12 18:54:30 UTC 2 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Subsystem

No response

What steps will reproduce the bug?

Run code:

const controller = new AbortController();

controller.signal.addEventListener('abort', () => {
  console.log('foo');
});

controller.signal.addEventListener(
  'abort',
  () => {
    console.log('bar');
  },
  { capture: true },
);

controller.abort();

How often does it reproduce? Is there a required condition?

No response

What is the expected behavior? Why is that the expected behavior?

expected output (like in firefox):

bar
foo

What do you see instead?

actual output:

foo
bar

Additional information

In Firefox there is properly behavior but i dont know how this described in specifications

Activity

  1. climba03003 commented on Feb 8, 2024

    @climba03003
    Contributor

    In chrome, it follows the order of registered event listener.

  2. krutoo commented on Feb 8, 2024

    @krutoo
    ContributorAuthor

    @climba03003 yes but I thought that capture: true option should affect listener call order in the same way as in the DOM events

  3. aduh95 commented on Feb 8, 2024

    @aduh95
    Contributor

    In Safari, like Firefox, the output is:

    bar
    foo
    

    It'd be interesting to pin down what the spec says about this.

    /cc @nodejs/web-standards

  4. KhafraDev commented on Feb 9, 2024

    @KhafraDev
    Member

    When set to true, options’s capture prevents callback from being invoked when the event’s eventPhase attribute value is BUBBLING_PHASE. When false (or not present), callback will not be invoked when event’s eventPhase attribute value is CAPTURING_PHASE. Either way, callback will be invoked if event’s eventPhase attribute value is AT_TARGET.

    Node doesn't implement bubbling, because there's no tree-like structure that's hierarchical (think about an HTMLElement that can have children/a parent). Even if there was, AbortController/EventTarget has no hierarchy, and should ignore capture regardless.

    Furthermore, here are the steps to invoke a callback (a callback is the user-supplied function when using addEventListener):
    Note that an eventPhase, in node, can only be AT_TARGET or NONE

    [2] For each listener in listeners, whose removed is false:
    [2.4] If phase is "bubbling" and listener’s capture is true, then continue.
    ...
    [2.10] Call a user object’s operation with listener’s callback, "handleEvent", « event », and event’s currentTarget attribute value. If this throws an exception, then:

    There are a few important things to note here.

    1. addEventListener appends the callback to the list, not prepends
    2. the spec defines For each (step 2 above) as "performing a set of steps on each item in order," the in order is important here.

    I'm not an expert at EventTarget, but it would appear as though node is correct, given the differences between browsers and servers. Maybe someone else can chime in who knows more.

  5. github-actions commented on May 23, 2026

    @github-actions
    Contributor

    This issue has been marked as stale due to 210 days of inactivity.
    It will be automatically closed in 30 days if no further activity occurs. If this is still relevant, please leave a comment or update it to keep it open.

  6. added
    staleIssues and PRs marked stale due to inactivity and scheduled for automatic closure.
    on May 23, 2026
  7. krutoo commented on May 23, 2026

    @krutoo
    ContributorAuthor

    I agree that there's no hierarchy in Node, but it seemed logical to me that if I add two listeners to a controller, one of which has capture:true, then regardless of the registration order, the one with capture:true will be called first.

    However, overall, this isn't a problem for me, thanks for the clarification.

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