setTimeout Calling Callback Too Early

• Version: v8.15.1
• Platform: Darwin Charlies-MacBook-Pro.local 18.2.0 Darwin Kernel Version 18.2.0: Thu Dec 20 20:46:53 PST 2018; root:xnu-4903.241.1~1/RELEASE_X86_64 x86_64

I have the following code in Node.js.

const timeout = (ms) => new Promise((resolve) => setTimeout(resolve, ms));

I'm trying to test this code with the following test:

it("Should wait for given time before resolving", async () => {
    const MS = 100;
    const start = process.hrtime();

    await timeout(MS);

    const diff = process.hrtime(start);
    expect(((diff[0] * NS_PER_SEC) + diff[1]) / 1000000).to.at.least(MS);
});

The problem is sometimes (rarely), this test fails:

Should wait for given time before resolving:

  AssertionError: expected 99.595337 to be at least 100
  + expected - actual

  -99.595337
  +100

Obviously this is some type of timing issue with Node.js or something. If anything I expect await timeout(MS); to take slightly longer than MS. In no case do I expect it to take less time.

What is it about the internals of JavaScript/Node.js that causes this to happen?

This occurred on macOS 10.14.3 running Node.js version 8.15.1.

Inizia con l’helper per il timeout usando setTimeout e l’asserzione temporale usando process.hrtime. Confronta il tempo trascorso osservato con il ritardo richiesto e analizza il comportamento dei timer di Node.js descritto nell’issue; il lavoro è completo quando la causa è spiegata oppure sono state individuate una correzione riproducibile e la relativa validazione.