Incoherent "Address already in use 127.0.0.1:XXXX" issue when using Ganache programmatically (JS)

I’m having an issue with Ganache when trying to use it programmatically with a JavaScript script.

Basically it doesn’t want to start saying port is already in use - whereas it is not 🤷

It does start with the same port if I run the CLI directly.

How to reproduce:

• create a script for Ganache (see code below)
• run node ganache.js => does not work, results in “Address already in use 127.0.0.1:XXXX”, no matter the port
• run ./node_modules/.bin/ganache -p XXXX => it works

Here’s the content of the script ganache.js - based on the example provided in README:

require("dotenv").config();
const ganache = require("ganache");
const Web3 = require('web3');

const options = {
  account_keys_path: "ganache.json",
  wallet: {
    accounts: [
      {
        secretKey: `${process.env.PRIVATE_KEY}`,
        balance: Web3.utils.toHex(`${process.env.INITIAL_BALANCE}`)
      }
    ],
  }
};

const port = process.env.PORT || 8545;
const server = ganache.server(options);
server.listen(port, async err => {
  if (err) throw err;
  console.log(`ganache listening on port ${port}...`);
  const provider = server.provider;

  await provider.request({
    method: "eth_accounts",
    params: []
  }).then(accounts => console.log(accounts));

});

[jeffsmale90]

Hi @MatthieuScarset - I just joined the team and picked up this case as a familiarisation task. Feel free to have a look at the change above - I tested with pretty much your exact snippet and it worked as expected.

[MatthieuScarset]

Good catch! thank you, it seems that the issue was to cast to env

Apparently, parseInt(process.env.PORT) fixes the issues.

I’ve tried several different start/stop with different values and now Ganache “restart” correctly.

Thank you for your help!

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For the record, here’s my implementation of Ganache programmatically: https://github.com/MatthieuScarset/quick-dapp/blob/develop/ganache.js