How to run node js file in background process on window server?

Question

I was creating a node.js project and uploaded it to my Windows server to provide an API service for mobile application.

When I open command prompt and type

node app.js

It runs correctly, but when I close the command prompt my node.js server stopped running.

How to make it still running when I close the commend prompt?

For example on Ubuntu I use the command

nohup 

How can I do this on Windows?

Answer 1

You can make the process run in background using pm2

pm2 start app.js --watch

This will start the process and will also look for changes in the file. More about watch flag

Answer 2

Nodemon #ftw. On Windows, Forever doesn't really watch files so much as casually observe them, while pm2 restarts the server every time you load a page.

Each of these tools works similarly, and each installs just as in the accepted answer. E.g.:

npm install nodemon -g

This installs nodemon globally, and to use you can simply navigate to your project folder and enter:

nodemon

(Assuming your project has an app.js file). You can add the -w switch, just as in Forever and pm2, however if you're just wanting to watch all files, you can omit that. To run nodemon in the background with Forever, you would run this:

forever nodemon --exitcrash 

Nodemon is good for development, especially on Windows, while Forever and pm2 are more for production, on Linux.