 href="#dgram_socket_unref" id="dgram_socket_unref">#</a></span></h3>
<div class="api_metadata">
<span>Added in: v0.9.1</span>
</div>
<ul>
<li>Returns: <a href="dgram.html#dgram_class_dgram_socket" class="type">&#x3C;dgram.Socket></a></li>
</ul>
<p>By default, binding a socket will cause it to block the Node.js process from
exiting as long as the socket is open. The <code>socket.unref()</code> method can be used
to exclude the socket from the reference counting that keeps the Node.js
process active, allowin