Severity: Unhandled promise rejection in `whitespace-async.js` when ESLint async path is used
Author: dataCenter430Created Mar 5, 2026Updated Sep 8, 2026
Summary
When the config is loaded on ESLint 9 (or when CLIEngine is unavailable), whitespace.js runs whitespace-async.js via execSync. That script calls onlyErrorOnRules(...).then(...) with no .catch(). If the promise rejects, the rejection is unhandled.
Impact
- Process can exit with an unhandled rejection.
- Child process may write errors (or non-JSON) to stdout, so the parent’s
JSON.parse(stdout)can throw and fail config loading with an unclear error.
Affected files
packages/eslint-config-airbnb-base/whitespace-async.js(line 49)packages/eslint-config-airbnb/whitespace-async.js(line 49)
Suggested fix
Add a .catch() that logs the error and sets process.exitCode = 1, so rejections are handled and the child exits with a non-zero code instead of leaving an unhandled rejection.
Screenshot
I'd love to have the chance to contribute to this.
Source: airbnb/javascript