child_process: timeout option never clears on spawn-time failure (ENOENT etc), hangs process for full timeoutMs

[kishore280]

Version

v24.5.0

Platform

Microsoft Windows NT 10.0.26200.0 x64

Subsystem

child_process

What steps will reproduce the bug?

const {spawn} = require('child_process');
const start = Date.now();
const child = spawn('node', ['--version'], {cwd: 'Z:\\nope', timeout: 5000});
child.on('error', e => console.log('error', Date.now() - start, e.code));
process.on('exit', () => console.log('exiting', Date.now() - start));

How often does it reproduce? Is there a required condition?

Always, with timeout set and a spawn that fails at the OS level (ENOENT here).

What is the expected behavior? Why is that the expected behavior?

Process exits within a few ms of error.

What do you see instead?

error 12 ENOENT
exiting 5026

Hangs until timeout elapses.

Additional information

timeout's only cleanup is child.once('exit', clearTimeout). On a spawn-time failure onexit gets exitCode < 0 and emits error, not exit — so the timer never clears. unref() doesn't help either.

No existing issue found for this exact case (#43704, #51561 are different). Fix: clear the timer on error too, or use close instead of exit. Can PR once there's a preferred direction.