Automatically start forever (node) on system restart

Question

I would suggest using crontab. It's easy to use.

How to

1. To start editing run the following replacing the "testuser" with your desired runtime user for the node process. If you choose a different user other than yourself, you will have to run this with sudo.

   $ crontab -u testuser -e
   

2. If you have never done this before, it will ask you which editor you wish to edit with. I like vim, but will recommend nano for ease of use.

3. Once in the editor add the following line:

   @reboot /usr/local/bin/forever start /your/path/to/your/app.js
   

4. Save the file. You should get some feedback that the cron has been installed.

5. For further confirmation of the installation of the cron, execute the following (again replacing "testuser" with your target username) to list the currently installed crons:

   $ crontab -u testuser -l 
   

Note that in my opinion, you should always use full paths when executing binaries in cron. Also, if the path to your forever script is not correct, run which forever to get the full path.

Given that forever calls node, you may also want to provide the full path to node:

@reboot /usr/local/bin/forever start -c /usr/local/bin/node /your/path/to/your/app.js

Further Reading

• crontab Man Page
• Ubuntu Cron HowTo

You can use forever-service for doing this.

npm install -g forever-service
forever-service install test

This will provision app.js in the current directory as a service via forever. The service will automatically restart every time system is restarted. Also when stopped it will attempt a graceful stop. This script provisions the logrotate script as well.

Github url: https://github.com/zapty/forever-service

NOTE: I am the author of forever-service.

1. Install PM2 globally using NPM

   npm install pm2 -g

2. Start your script with pm2

   pm2 start app.js

3. generate an active startup script

   pm2 startup

   NOTE: pm2 startup is for startting the PM2 when the system reboots. PM2 once started, restarts all the processes it had been managing before the system went down.

In case you want to disable the automatic startup, simply use pm2 unstartup

If you want the startup script to be executed under another user, just use the -u <username> option and the --hp <user_home>:

This case is valid for Debian.

Add the following to /etc/rc.local

/usr/bin/sudo -u {{user}} /usr/local/bin/forever start {{app path}}

• {{user}} replaces your username.
• {{app path}} replaces your app path. For example, /var/www/test/app.js

An alternative crontab method inspired by this answer and this blog post.

1. Create a bash script file (change bob to desired user).

vi /home/bob/node_server_init.sh

2. Copy and paste this inside the file you've just created.

#!/bin/sh

export NODE_ENV=production
export PATH=/usr/local/bin:$PATH
forever start /node/server/path/server.js > /dev/null

Make sure to edit the paths above according to your config!

3. Make sure the bash script can be executed.

chmod 700 /home/bob/node_server_init.sh

4. Test the bash script.

sh /home/bob/node_server_init.sh

5. Replace "bob" with the runtime user for node.

crontab -u bob -e

6. Copy and paste (change bob to desired user).

@reboot /bin/sh /home/bob/node_server_init.sh

Save the crontab.

You've made it to the end, your prize is a reboot (to test) :)

Copied answer from the attached question.

You can use PM2, it's a production process manager for Node.js applications with a built-in load balancer.

Install PM2

$ npm install pm2 -g

Start an application

$ pm2 start app.js

If you using express then you can start your app like

pm2 start ./bin/www --name="app"

Listing all running processes:

$ pm2 list

It will list all process. You can then stop / restart your service by using ID or Name of the app with following command.

$ pm2 stop all                  
$ pm2 stop 0                    
$ pm2 restart all               

To display logs

$ pm2 logs ['all'|app_name|app_id]

You need to create a shell script in the /etc/init.d folder for that. It's sort of complicated if you never have done it but there is plenty of information on the web on init.d scripts.

Here is a sample a script that I created to run a CoffeeScript site with forever:

#!/bin/bash
#
# initd-example      Node init.d 
#
# chkconfig: 345 
# description: Script to start a coffee script application through forever
# processname: forever/coffeescript/node
# pidfile: /var/run/forever-initd-hectorcorrea.pid 
# logfile: /var/run/forever-initd-hectorcorrea.log
#
# Based on a script posted by https://gist.github.com/jinze at https://gist.github.com/3748766
#


# Source function library.
. /lib/lsb/init-functions


pidFile=/var/run/forever-initd-hectorcorrea.pid 
logFile=/var/run/forever-initd-hectorcorrea.log 

sourceDir=/home/hectorlinux/website
coffeeFile=app.coffee
scriptId=$sourceDir/$coffeeFile


start() {
    echo "Starting $scriptId"

    # This is found in the library referenced at the top of the script
    start_daemon

    # Start our CoffeeScript app through forever
    # Notice that we change the PATH because on reboot
    # the PATH does not include the path to node.
    # Launching forever or coffee with a full path
    # does not work unless we set the PATH.
    cd $sourceDir
    PATH=/usr/local/bin:$PATH
    NODE_ENV=production PORT=80 forever start --pidFile $pidFile -l $logFile -a -d --sourceDir $sourceDir/ -c coffee $coffeeFile

    RETVAL=$?
}

restart() {
    echo -n "Restarting $scriptId"
    /usr/local/bin/forever restart $scriptId
    RETVAL=$?
}

stop() {
    echo -n "Shutting down $scriptId"
    /usr/local/bin/forever stop $scriptId
    RETVAL=$?
}

status() {
    echo -n "Status $scriptId"
    /usr/local/bin/forever list
    RETVAL=$?
}


case "$1" in
    start)
        start
        ;;
    stop)
        stop
        ;;
    status)
        status
        ;;
    restart)
        restart
        ;;
    *)
        echo "Usage:  {start|stop|status|restart}"
        exit 1
        ;;
esac
exit $RETVAL

I had to make sure the folder and PATHs were explicitly set or available to the root user since init.d scripts are ran as root.