How to run node js server as a daemon process?

Question

I am using Ionic framework and nodejs for one app. All nodejs files are in linux server. I am starting the nodejs server using 'npm start &' command through putty. But the problem is if I close putty the server is getting stopped after sometime. I tried 'nohup npm start &'. But still I am facing the same issue. How to start this as a daemon process..?

Answer 1

You can use pm2 for production.

To install pm2 :

npm install pm2 -g

To start an application simply just run :

pm2 start app.js

You can check logs via:

pm2 logs

For more options just checkout their readme files on github repo.

Answer 2

This is adaptation of daemon module:

const child_process = require('child_process')

function child(exe, args, env) {
    const child = child_process.spawn(exe, args, { 
        detached: true,
        stdio: ['ignore', 'ignore', 'ignore'],
        env: env
    })
    child.unref()
    return child
}

module.exports = function(nodeBin) {
    console.log('Daemonize process')

    if (process.env.__daemon) {
        return process.pid
    }
    process.env.__daemon = true

    var args = [].concat(process.argv)
    var node = args.shift()
    var env = process.env
    child(node, args, env)
    return process.exit()
}

Usage:

const daemon = require('daemon')
daemon()

app.listen(...)

https://wiki.unix7.org/node/daemon-sample