How to short-circuit those annoying favicon requests in node.js

favicon-interceptor.js

// early experiments with node had mysterious double requests
// turned out these were for the stoopid favicon
// here's how to short-circuit those requests
// and stop seeing 404 errors in your client console

var http = require('http');

http.createServer(function (q, r) { 

  // control for favicon

  if (q.url === '/favicon.ico') {
    r.writeHead(200, {'Content-Type': 'image/x-icon'} );
    r.end();
    console.log('favicon requested');
    return;
  }

  // not the favicon? say hai
  console.log('hello');
  r.writeHead(200, {'Content-Type': 'text/plain'} );
  r.write('Hello, world!');
  r.end();
  
}).listen(8000);

console.log('Server running at http://127.0.0.1:8000/');

Simple and sweet, thanks for sharing!

Glad it was useful!

In case someone stumbles upon this in the future.. If you are running nginx in front of node.js you can also block favicon requests by adding this line:

location = /favicon.ico { access_log off; log_not_found off; }

Wonderful, thanks.

This was very helpful. Thank you.

Thanks!

Thanks. This is exactly what I was looking for. Wish there were more useful, small code snippets like this around the Net.

Thanks so much! Exactly what I was looking for.

helpful,thanks!

Great and simple! Thank you.

Thanks for this! Chrome causes this issue.

If you are using express you can do it like this

app.use(express.favicon(__dirname + '/public/favicon.ico'));

Great Solution without express! Thanks!

Thank you! Exactly what I was looking for. 👍

Thanks... Once again.

Thanks that's what I was looking for 👍

👍

thanks for sharing 👍

Great !!!!!

Nice one, thanks

God Bless you~

if you are interested I made and express middleware based on this gist; you can find it here: https://github.com/mattiaerre/express-favicon-short-circuit

// cc @kentbrew

Worth noting that this only works if you call return form the main app.js file. I put the above code in a separate router.js file, and it didn't work as expected.

@damirkotoric Where would I call return from my server.js file? I'm new to backend Node.js. Installing @mattiaerre 's express-favicon-short-circuit middleware did not help, and I've already posted to stackoverflow.com, so I am on the hunt for answers to this favicon problem. This is the project I'm working on.

Hallelujah!!!

thanks man

Thanks a million. This was driving me insane

Thank you very much! ^_^

Thanks so much .. I was wondering why my page's visitor count was increasing twice on a single request.

I read up on StackOverFlow that 204 (No Content) is a better response status than 200 (Success) for silencing the favicon problem! Just saying. good solution, I just like the semantics implied by status 204. :)

Great approach. Thank you