TypeError crashing application when using relative URL from axios

I got the following error coming from follow-redirects:

/.../node_modules/follow-redirects/index.js:598
  const dot = subdomain.length - domain.length - 1;
                                        ^
TypeError: Cannot read property 'length' of null
    at isSubdomain (/.../node_modules/follow-redirects/index.js:598:41)
    at RedirectableRequest._processResponse ((/.../node_modules/follow-redirects/index.js:432:7)
    at ClientRequest.RedirectableRequest._onNativeResponse ((/.../node_modules/follow-redirects/index.js:57:10)
    at Object.onceWrapper (events.js:520:26)
    at ClientRequest.emit (events.js:400:28)
    at ClientRequest.emit (domain.js:475:12)
    at HTTPParser.parserOnIncomingClient [as onIncoming] (_http_client.js:647:27)
    at HTTPParser.parserOnHeadersComplete (_http_common.js:127:17)
    at Socket.socketOnData (_http_client.js:515:22)
    at Socket.emit (events.js:400:28)

and it happens when HTTP client (axios) is trying to do GET request on relative URL: /console/external/content?url=https%3A%2F%2F...%2Faws.png.

From my quick investigation it seems like currentHost passed to isSubdomain function is null, but inside that function it is assumed that this parameter is a string.

Attachments: This are dumps of some data in RedirectableRequest.prototype._processResponse function:

• this._options - options.txt
• response - response.txt

Environment:

• node - v14.18.1
• axios - v0.26.1
• follow-redirects - v1.15.1
• nginx HTTPS webserver running on localhost

Not sure if it is on follow-redirects or on axios side, but that specific error is not handled and it crashes the app. Other errors like invalid URL when using absolute URLs are handled flawlessly.

Let me know if any additional data needed or if I should pass this issue to axios guys.

[RubenVerborgh]

Thanks @qooban. v1.15.2 will now handle this gracefully by defaulting to localhost (6e2b86da90cde81f15a5ba1732a41fd1291f14d3), as Node does. However, I still recommend you use the full URL, as it seems to be a pure coincidence that it is indeed localhost in your case 🙂

[qooban]

Yeah, you’re right. When using axios in browser relative URL should work, but in node.js environment (this is my case) it has no way to know how to transform it, so baseURL should be specified in axios config. When I set it ({ baseURL: 'https://localhost' }), my migration script is not crashing anymore.

Thanks for your patience and willingness to find the reason for the problem!