Jest: Error: Error watching file for changes: EMFILE

Created on 2 May 2017 · 22Comments · Source: facebook/jest

I know others have posted this issue, but it seems that they are aging and using old versions. I have tried everything from other issues.

Here is the error I get:

$ jest --watch # or with $ jest --watch --no-watchman
2017-05-02 09:49 node[8980] (FSEvents.framework) FSEventStreamStart: register_with_server: ERROR: f2d_register_rpc() => (null) (-22)
2017-05-02 09:49 node[8980] (FSEvents.framework) FSEventStreamStart: register_with_server: ERROR: f2d_register_rpc() => (null) (-22)
2017-05-02 09:49 node[8980] (FSEvents.framework) FSEventStreamStart: register_with_server: ERROR: f2d_register_rpc() => (null) (-22)
events.js:163
      throw er; // Unhandled 'error' event
      ^

Error: Error watching file for changes: EMFILE
    at exports._errnoException (util.js:1050:11)
    at FSEvent.FSWatcher._handle.onchange (fs.js:1376:11)
error Command failed with exit code 1.

Versions:

node: v7.9.0
jest: 19.0.2
watchman: 4.7.0 (installed via brew)
mac: Sierra 10.12.4 (16E195)

Source

kirkstrobeck

👍28

Most helpful comment

brew install watchman worked for me.

joevandyk on 18 May 2017

👍172 🎉40 ❤31 👎7

All 22 comments

This problem exists with the following versions

19.0.2
19.0.1
19.0.0

It works in

18.1.0

kirkstrobeck on 3 May 2017

👎2

Does it happen in v20?

thymikee on 8 May 2017

Yes, the error is present in v20.0.0.

2017-05-08 05:30 node[6062] (FSEvents.framework) FSEventStreamStart: register_with_server: ERROR: f2d_register_rpc() => (null) (-22)
2017-05-08 05:30 node[6062] (FSEvents.framework) FSEventStreamStart: register_with_server: ERROR: f2d_register_rpc() => (null) (-22)
2017-05-08 05:30 node[6062] (FSEvents.framework) FSEventStreamStart: register_with_server: ERROR: f2d_register_rpc() => (null) (-22)
events.js:163
      throw er; // Unhandled 'error' event
      ^

Error: Error watching file for changes: EMFILE
    at exports._errnoException (util.js:1050:11)
    at FSEvent.FSWatcher._handle.onchange (fs.js:1376:11)
error Command failed with exit code 1.

kirkstrobeck on 8 May 2017

👍1

And have you tried it with watchman (brew install watchman)?

thymikee on 8 May 2017

👍104 ❤29 🎉28

Yes

kirkstrobeck on 8 May 2017

Any chance for a repro? It's hard to debug without it :(

thymikee on 8 May 2017

brew install watchman worked for me.

joevandyk on 18 May 2017

👍172 🎉40 ❤31 👎7

Same here, it did not work with jest --watch or jest --watch --no-watchman (watchman was not installed):

2017-05-28 18:57 node[17087] (FSEvents.framework) FSEventStreamStart: register_with_server: ERROR: f2d_register_rpc() => (null) (-22)
2017-05-28 18:57 node[17087] (FSEvents.framework) FSEventStreamStart: register_with_server: ERROR: f2d_register_rpc() => (null) (-22)
2017-05-28 18:57 node[17087] (FSEvents.framework) FSEventStreamStart: register_with_server: ERROR: f2d_register_rpc() => (null) (-22)
events.js:163
      throw er; // Unhandled 'error' event
      ^

Error: Error watching file for changes: EMFILE
    at exports._errnoException (util.js:1050:11)
    at FSEvent.FSWatcher._handle.onchange (fs.js:1374:11)

I installed watchman using brew, and jest --watch now works. jest --watch --no-watchman still fails.

Jest v20.0.4
Node v7.10.0
MacOS 10.12.5

renchap on 28 May 2017

👍3

I get similar error when i install "pact" and then i tried to run npm test. I using create-react-app to setup my project and using node v7.9.0

fitfab on 30 May 2017

👍3

new sane version fixed this error for me see https://github.com/amasad/sane/pull/97#issuecomment-309203580

thisconnect on 17 Jun 2017

Same problem,
MAC OS X Sierra
Node v7.8.0
Jest ^20.0.4

wayneseymour on 21 Jun 2017

brew install watchman worked for me too using NodeJS v6.9 but what I don't understand is the watchman dependence itself. Is this a dependency of the NodeJS version on Mac OS X Sierra? Where does this fit in the dependency tree?

melkristian on 28 Jun 2017

👍20

https://github.com/facebook/jest/issues/1767#issuecomment-313434888

kirkstrobeck on 6 Jul 2017

👍1

brew install watchman worked for me.

Premjeet-Singh on 7 Dec 2017

👍14

I had this error, but found that if I changed the command I used to run jest in watch mode, it worked.

"test": "jest",
"test:watch": "npm run test -- --watch",

became:

"test": "jest",
"test:watch": "npm run test --watch",

gazzwi86 on 18 Dec 2017

🎉6 👍1

brew install watchman worked... until it didn't... :-/ quit my tests and ran it again. And we're back at square one. uninstalled watchman, reinstalled watchman. no-dice.

darylshy on 17 Mar 2018

brew install watchman worked for me. And I think watchman had gotten broken somehow because I accidentally closed a terminal window while installing a react package using npm. Clean installing everything both in the project and globally didn't seem to help, but re-installing watchman did.

thujone on 31 May 2018

Yeah! brew install watchman for work

Leotw on 24 Jun 2018

Yeah! brew install watchman for work (2)

zxzl on 17 Jul 2018

Yeah! brew install watchman for work (3)

ekaterinaMelnik on 20 Sep 2018

ditto to watchman

amandapouget on 22 Sep 2018

👍3

I had this error, but found that if I changed the command I used to run jest in watch mode, it worked.
"test": "jest",
"test:watch": "npm run test -- --watch",
became:
"test": "jest",
"test:watch": "npm run test --watch",

The extra -- is the delimiter that tells npm to forward the remaining parameters to the referenced script.

npm run test -- --watch would run jest --watch but npm run test --watch would ignore the argument and just run jest. You can verify this in your console output.