How can I restart a Node.js app from within itself (programmatically)?

Question

How can I create an app that can restart itself? I want to create an app that sets up a web-admin which can restart itself. Is this possible? If so, how? I was thinking this might be possible with the process global variable that is built into node.

Answer 1

LK"I

It is possible without external dependencies:

console.log("This is pid " + process.pid); setTimeout(function () {     process.on("exit", function () {         require("child_process").spawn(process.argv.shift(), process.argv, {             cwd: process.cwd(),             detached : true,             stdio: "inherit"         });     });     process.exit(); }, 5000); 

source : https://gist.github.com/silverwind/d0802f7a919ae86ff25e

Answer 2

I have run Forever several times and it is easy to get started with. Check it out at: https://github.com/nodejitsu/forever