LocalTunnel randomly crashes and subdomain no longer works

Question

I have a server that runs via Node on my machine. It runs when my pc starts up under a custom subdomain using lt --subdomain mydomain --port 3000 I noticed that it started to randomly crash after about 6 hours. I put this down to either the node server or localtunnel restarting or my internet being poor quality.

When i rerun the above localtunnel command it says the subdomain is taken (gives a random subdomain). How do I make the localtunnel close the tunnel correctly to allow for my subdomain to be reused?

Answer 1

I've managed to make a class that redigs/restarts the tunnel if a connection error occurs. It is not a fix to the problem, but it prevents it from occuring. I've been using this as a solution for a year now and haven't had a single problem with it, so I hope it works for you too.

easy-tunnel.js

const { exec } = require("child_process")
const colours = require("colors")
const base_host = 'http://localtunnel.me'
 
class EasyTunnel {
    /**
     * 
     * @param {number} port 
     * @param {string} subdomain 
     * @param {string} [host] defaults to 'http://localtunnel.me'
     */
    constructor(port, subdomain, host) {
        this.port = port
        this.subdomain = subdomain
        this.host = host ? host : base_host
    }
    /**
     * Start the EasyTunnel
     * @param {string} [status] used so redigging does not show initial dig message
     */
    start(status) {
        if (status != 'redig') console.log(`> Dug a tunnel for ${this.subdomain.yellow} on port ${this.port.toString().cyan} at ${this.host.green}`)
        exec(`lt --subdomain ${this.subdomain} --port ${this.port} --host ${this.host}`, async (err, out) => {
            if (err.toString().includes('connection refused')) {
                this.start("redig")
                console.log("> Redigging tunnel")
            }
        })
    }

}

module.exports = EasyTunnel

main-app.js

var express = require("express")
var easyTunnel = require("./imports/easy-tunnel")
var port = 3000
var localtunnel = new easyTunnel(port, 'website-name')
var app = express();

app.get("/", (req, res) => {
    res.send(":)")
}

app.listen(port, () => localtunnel.start());