setting NODE_ENV for node.js + expressjs application as a daemon under ubuntu

Question

i got the daemon working alright with these instructions: http://kevin.vanzonneveld.net/techblog/article/run_nodejs_as_a_service_on_ubuntu_karmic/

but because this starts the application in DEVELOPMENT mode, the log file gets spammed with socket.io debug logs.

i tried setting the NODE_ENV to production in the upstart-conf-file but had no success.

script     export HOME="/root"     export NODE_ENV=production      exec /usr/local/bin/node /where/yourprogram.js >> /var/log/node.log 2>&1 end script 

didn't work.

Answer 1

Try

exec NODE_ENV=production /usr/local/bin/node /where/yourprogram.js >> /var/log/node.log 2>&1 

In my setup I'm sudoing as a lesser user, so it's

exec sudo -u some-user NODE_ENV=production /usr/local/bin/node /where/yourprogram.js >> /var/log/node.log 2>&1 

and since it's spawning off another user it probably has another environment. I'm a newbie here, but it works for me.

Answer 2

Here's a simpler upstart script you can use. Upstart now supports everything you need to do directly without script sections or too much embedded shell syntax. This includes environment variables (env), working directory (chdir), user/group (setuid, setgid), log handling (console log), etc. Your log files will be handled and rotated into /var/log/upstart/your_app.log

description "start and stop the example express.js/node.js server" author "John Doe <[email protected]>"  start on filesystem and started networking respawn console log chdir /opt/your_app setuid your_app_user setgid your_app_user env PATH=./node_modules/.bin:./node/bin:/usr/bin env NODE_ENV=production exec app/server.js