Readable Streams: Non-Flowing and Flowing Modes

A Readable stream represents a source of data. In Node.js, it’s implemented using the Readable abstract class, which is available in the stream module.

Reading from a stream

There are two approaches to receive the data from a Readable stream: non-flowing (or paused) and flowing. Let’s analyze these modes in more detail.

The non-flowing mode

The non-flowing (or paused) mode is the default pattern for reading from a Readable stream. It involves attaching a listener to the stream for the readable event, which signals the availability of new data to read. Then, in a loop, we read the data continuously until the internal buffer is emptied. This can be done using the read() method, which synchronously reads from the internal buffer and returns a Buffer object representing the chunk of data. The read() method has the following signature: