Restart Node.js server programmatically

Question

How to restart Node.js server from code? For example, if using expressjs framework,

app.get('/restart', function (req, res, next) {
//Code to restart a server
})

I want to restart server from app like this, without going to console etc. How to do it?

Answer 1

I use forever in order to start and monitoring application. So the restart function like this:

app.get('/restart', function (req, res, next) {
  process.exit(1);
});

After the shutdown of server, forever will restart service.

console:

Express server listening on port 3000 in development mode
error: Forever detected script exited with code: 1
error: Forever restarting script for 2 time
Express server listening on port 3000 in development mode

Answer 2

By combining npm restart and child_process.exec() it appears possible to restart the server programmatically. And since it allows for several scripts to be run for stopping, restarting, and starting this option would work even for multi-process servers or otherwise complex servers where simply calling process.exit() isn't viable.