How to start node app with development flag?

Question

At top of my app.js file I put

NODE_ENV=\'development\';

but I get error that NODE_ENV is not defined. But in the nodejs documentation is says

Answer 1

NODE_ENV is an environment variable.
You set it in your shell when you invoke Node.js.

However, development is the default; you only need to do anything if you want prod.

Answer 2

It is better to start your app in dev mode like this:

NODE_ENV=development node app.js

But if you really wanted to set it your app file just set it like this:

process.env.NODE_ENV= "development"

Answer 3

If you want to set an environment variable in your js file you should do it this way:

process.env.NODE_ENV = 'development';

Alternatively you can set the variable in your shell and run your application:

$ NODE_ENV="development" node ./app.js

or export the variable and run your application:

$ export NODE_ENV="development"
$ node ./app.js

On Windows:

$ set NODE_ENV="development"
$ node app.js

Answer 4

By using NPM you might to be used the follow scripts in the package.json:

  "scripts": {
    "start": "nodemon ./bin/www",
    "dev_win": "set NODE_ENV=development && node ./bin/www >> /romba/log/api.log 2>> /romba/log/error.log",
    "prod_win": "set NODE_ENV=production && node ./bin/www >> /romba/log/api.log 2>> /romba/log/error.log"
    "prod_nix": "NODE_ENV=production node ./bin/www >> /romba/log/api.log 2>> /romba/log/_error.log"
  },...

To start one of the script use the command:

 npm run-script prod_win

In the JavaScript code I check the condition:

process.env.NODE_ENV.indexOf('production') > -1

Answer 5

In order to start from cmd you can try

NODE_ENV=development node yourappname.js

If you are doing this in server where forever is installed you can mention the environment variable like

NODE_ENV=development forever start yourappname.js