WebSocketFactory.reconnect() never executes due to truthy sentinel value

[christianvogt]

Description

The reconnect() method in WebSocketFactory is unreachable due to a JavaScript truthiness bug with the connectionAttempt sentinel value. Even when reconnect: true is passed in options, websocket connections that are closed by the server are never automatically re-established.

The Bug

connectionAttempt is initialized to -1 as a sentinel meaning "no active reconnect timer":

private connectionAttempt = -1;

The reconnect() method guards against duplicate reconnect attempts:

private async reconnect(): Promise<void> {
  if (this.connectionAttempt || this.state === WebSocketState.DESTROYED) {
    return;
  }
  // ... reconnect logic ...
}

In JavaScript, -1 is truthy. This guard always evaluates to true, so reconnect() returns immediately without ever reaching the reconnection logic — including the check for this.options.reconnect.

The onclose handler calls this.reconnect(), and onopen resets connectionAttempt back to -1. So every close/reconnect cycle hits the same dead path.

Impact

Any consumer using WebSocketFactory with { reconnect: true } (including k8sWatch in @openshift/dynamic-plugin-sdk-utils, which sets this as a default) will never recover from a server-side close. The websocket silently dies and is never re-established. Consumers relying on watch semantics for real-time updates will stop receiving events permanently until the user triggers a full page reload or re-navigation.

Suggested Fix

Option A — Change the sentinel to a falsy value (recommended):

Replace all occurrences of this.connectionAttempt = -1 with this.connectionAttempt = 0, and update the initializer:

private connectionAttempt = 0;

0 is falsy in JavaScript and is never returned by window.setTimeout (which returns positive integers), making it a correct sentinel for "no active timer."

Option B — Use an explicit comparison in the guard:

if (this.connectionAttempt > 0 || this.state === WebSocketState.DESTROYED) {

Affected File

packages/lib-utils/src/web-socket/WebSocketFactory.ts

Version

Confirmed in @openshift/dynamic-plugin-sdk@5.0.1 / @openshift/dynamic-plugin-sdk-utils@5.0.1. The bug appears to be present on main as well based on the current source.