How do I run a node.js app as a background service?

Question

Since this post has gotten a lot of attention over the years, I\'ve listed the top solutions per platform at the bottom of this post.

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Original post

Answer 1

If you are running nodejs in linux server, I think this is the best way.

Create a service script and copy to /etc/init/nodejs.conf

start service: sudo service nodejs start

stop service: sudo service nodejs stop

Sevice script

description "DManager node.js server - Last Update: 2012-08-06"
author      "Pedro Muniz - pedro.muniz@geeklab.com.br"

env USER="nodejs" #you have to create this user 
env APPNAME="nodejs" #you can change the service name
env WORKDIR="/home/" #set your project home folder here
env COMMAND="/usr/bin/node " #app.js ?

# used to be: start on startup
# until we found some mounts weren't ready yet while booting:
start on started mountall
stop on shutdown

# Automatically Respawn:
respawn
respawn limit 99 5

pre-start script
    sudo -u $USER echo "[`date -u +%Y-%m-%dT%T.%3NZ`] (sys) Starting" >> /var/log/$APPNAME.log
end script

script
    # Not sure why $HOME is needed, but we found that it is:
    export HOME=""  #set your project home folder here
    export NODE_PATH=""

    #log file, grant permission to nodejs user
    exec start-stop-daemon --start --make-pidfile --pidfile /var/run/$APPNAME.pid --chuid $USER --chdir $WORKDIR --exec $COMMAND >> /var/log/$APPNAME.log 2>&1
end script

post-start script
   # Optionally put a script here that will notifiy you node has (re)started
   # /root/bin/hoptoad.sh "node.js has started!"
end script

pre-stop script
    sudo -u $USER echo "[`date -u +%Y-%m-%dT%T.%3NZ`] (sys) Stopping" >> /var/log/$APPNAME.log
end script