All http-client HEAD requests are marked as errors

[bcomnes]

Expected behaviour
When making a HEAD request with the node http client, the dd-trace should properly detect and classify HEAD requests according to their success or failure.

Actual behaviour

In dd-trace 2.4.0, no HEAD requests are detected and in versions 2.4.1-2.8.0 all HEAD requests are detected, but classified as errors.

Steps to reproduce

Install dd-trace onto a node app and make HEAD requests with the http client where requestOptions.method = 'HEAD'.

It seems related to these changes which fixed a similar issue for all other http methods. Perhaps since HEAD requests don't deal with a body, it was unaddressed?

• http plugin mark all http.request spans as error #1953
• fix http client integration always setting the error flag #1956

Environment

• Operation system:
• Heroku-20 stack
• Node.js version:
• ^17 || ^18
• Tracer version:
• 2.4.1-2.8.0
• Agent version:
• 7.36.0-1
• Relevant library versions:

Package.json:

{
  "name": "gumcast-api",
  "description": "A service for generating rss feeds from gumroad subscriptions",
  "version": "1.2.12",
  "author": "Bret Comnes <bcomnes@gmail.com> (https://bret.io/)",
  "bin": {
    "gumcast-api": "api/bin.js"
  },
  "bugs": {
    "url": "https://github.com/bcomnes/gumcast-api/issues"
  },
  "engines": {
    "node": "^18.0.0 || ^17.0.0",
    "npm": "^8.3.1"
  },
  "dependencies": {
    "bent": "^7.0.7",
    "body-parser": "^1.19.0",
    "clean-deep": "^3.3.0",
    "cliclopts": "^1.1.1",
    "cors": "^2.8.5",
    "dd-trace": "2.8.0",
    "finalhandler": "^1.1.2",
    "http-hash-router": "^2.0.1",
    "http-proxy": "^1.17.0",
    "jsonfeed-to-rss": "^3.0.3",
    "lodash.get": "^4.4.2",
    "lru-cache": "^7.3.1",
    "minimist": "^1.2.0",
    "nanoassert": "^2.0.0",
    "p-connect": "^2.0.0",
    "p-map": "^4.0.0",
    "parseurl": "^1.3.3",
    "pino-http": "^7.0.0",
    "pino-pretty": "^7.3.0",
    "qs": "^6.7.0",
    "redirect-chain": "^1.0.1",
    "striptags": "^3.1.1",
    "util.promisify": "^1.0.0"
  },
  "devDependencies": {
    "auto-changelog": "^2.2.0",
    "dependency-check": "^4.0.0",
    "gh-release": "^6.0.0",
    "nodemon": "^2.0.2",
    "npm-run-all": "^4.1.5",
    "standard": "^17.0.0",
    "tape": "^5.0.1"
  },
  "homepage": "https://github.com/bcomnes/gumcast-api#readme",
  "keywords": [
    "gumroad",
    "podcast"
  ],
  "license": "MIT",
  "main": "servr",
  "private": "true",
  "repository": {
    "type": "git",
    "url": "git+https://github.com/bcomnes/gumcast-api.git"
  },
  "scripts": {
    "dev": "nodemon ./api/bin.js -- --config ./config.json",
    "dev:api": "nodemon ./api/bin.js -- --config ./config.json",
    "dev:client": "budo client/index.js",
    "start": "./api/bin.js",
    "test": "run-s test:*",
    "test:api": "tape api/**/*.test.js",
    "test:deps": "dependency-check package.json api/bin --verbose --no-dev -i pino-pretty",
    "test:standard": "standard",
    "release": "git push --follow-tags && gh-release -y",
    "version": "auto-changelog -p --template keepachangelog auto-changelog --breaking-pattern 'BREAKING CHANGE:' && git add CHANGELOG.md"
  }
}

[rochdev]

I just tried sending a HEAD request and it worked as expected with a 200 status code, the error flag set to 0 and no error tags. Can you provide a reproduction snippet that results in the error you are seeing?

[bcomnes]

The code that was triggering this was requests made by this library:

https://github.com/tractr/redirect-chain/blob/master/index.js

Perhaps something about how this code is handling the request is triggering an error in dd-trace?

[rochdev]

Can you provide a reproduction snippet using that library that would demonstrate the error?

[bcomnes]

Sure

[bcomnes]

Sorry my wife just gave birth. I will follow up with a reproducible example as soon as I can.

[bcomnes]

Ok sorry for the delay @rochdev

I put together a small demo that demonstrates the error:

https://github.com/ballpit/dd-trace-test/blob/master/index.js

Its just a bare bones web server that has one route:

https://dd-trace-test.herokuapp.com/redirect-chain?get=https://t.co/Pq8kh5jZOY

It takes a get query param, then uses HEAD requests to find the final destination if the URL has redirects, using the request-chain library.

Even though the HEAD requests do not encounter errors, dd-trace marks them as errors with no other context as to why it thinks its an error:

Any ideas?