Key concepts

• Streams: A sequence of data that can be read from or written to incrementally. They are abstractions to work with binary data.
• Chunks: The individual pieces of data within a stream. A chunk can be a single byte or a larger data unit.
• Backpressure: A built-in mechanism in consumer stream to signal producer to slow down, preventing resource overload.
• Piping: Connecting streams to form a data processing chain using pipeThrough() and pipeTo() methods.
• Readers & Writers: Objects used to interact with streams.
  • ReadableStream has a getReader()
  • WritableStream has a getWriter()
• A stream locks to one reader or writer at a time. To allow multiple consumers:
  • Call reader.releaseLock() when done.
  • Or use stream.tee() to create two copies that can be read independently.
  • stream.locked : true if locked
• BYOB streams: ‘type: "bytes": ensures chunks are ArrayBufferViews, enabling zero-copy operations and BYOB readers.
• To prevent overload, use Strategy Objects [custom backpressure logic]

Types of Streams

• Readable Streams: Used for reading data from a source (e.g., a file, an HTTP request). All readable streams are asyc iterables.
• Writable Streams: Used for writing data to a destination
• Duplex Streams: both readable and writable. Data written can be read from it. e.g. a TCP socket
• Transform Streams: A special type of duplex stream where output is a transformation of input

Nodejs Streams